The Ransomware Handbook: How to Prepare for, Prevent, and Recover from Ransomware Attacks

By Mike Boutwell and Timea Kopcakova

The Ransomware Handbook is an essential read for anyone wishing to learn about ransomware attacks. Mike thoroughly examines the essence of what ransomware is, the current trends within ransomware, and how to protect your organisation from this modern threat. The book gives data driven insights on the trends within ransomware, such as the rise of

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Boutwell
• Release date: Sep 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781087982885

Book preview

Disclaimer

The information within this book is not intended to be a step-by-step guide to solve your specific cybersecurity challenge. Each organization’s digital security needs are just as different as its business model. In the end, proper implementation of security, both physical and digital, is the responsibility of everyone within that organization. Even then, nothing is guaranteed in the world of cybersecurity. Cybercriminals are very clever, and targets of these crimes are at a massive disadvantage. It should not be assumed that this is all you need to protect your organization.

About the Author

Ever since Mike Boutwell was young, he found technology exciting. It was this ever-changing, ever-evolving world that never stopped offering new solutions, new inventions, and new experiences. Taking on a career as a Senior Architect at AT&T exposed him to the business world. By aligning technology strategy with business goals, he discovered his own winning recipe.

In 2017, Mike began providing Cybersecurity and Business consultancy services, building his prospecting skills on the go, as he established himself as a trusted business and technology advisor among local and global business leaders. Working independently and meeting so many intriguing leaders and innovators inspired him to found Pallas Group, a consulting firm focused on cybersecurity. With a passion for leadership, business, and continuous improvement, his focus is on delivering massive amounts of value to solve problems and positively impact the world through entrepreneurship.

His notable experience includes:

Working on a team that deployed the first 4G network in Europe.

Discovering flaws within Cisco Nexus chip architecture, which later led to revised product development by Cisco.

Leading disaster recovery and business continuity planning and design in multiple EMEA-based data centers for the financial services firm First Data.

Working as an independent business and cybersecurity consultant with more than 50 SMEs in the fintech, med-tech, energy, and financial sector.

Developing standards, roadmaps, strategy, and technology plans in line with business needs with multiple FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies.

Working in a leadership capacity in both waterfall and agile projects logging more than 17,000 hours in the areas of transformation, refresh, standardization, and cost-efficiency.

Being featured as an expert in the blockchain documentary New Kids on the Blockchain.

Mike is also an avid investor, a practitioner of advanced calisthenics, and a mentor to youth.

Who is this book for?

This book is intended for any professional who is interested in protecting their business or property from ransomware. The whole point is to distribute this publication as widely as possible to mitigate as many ransomware attacks as possible and starve attackers of their resources.

I have organized this book in a stepwise fashion walking you through what ransomware is, defining the methods which protect you from ransomware, explaining how to implement that methodology properly, and finally, how to handle a ransomware attack on your business.

This publication is heavily cited for good purpose. It shows all of the data points provided by research firms that studied ransomware attacks. Further, the data regarding the success of recovering from an attack provides empirical evidence of what works and what does not work. This data-driven approach allows you to prepare to make quick decisions when your business is suffering downtime. The data will make it clear which choices benefit businesses and which choices do not.

Read carefully and consider how your organization can improve its protection mechanisms. Carry this book with you. Have a copy at your desk. Give a copy to your friends and colleagues. Together, we can reverse the prevalence of ransomware attacks and turn back the trend of the explosive growth of ransomware!

Chapter 1

What is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that leverages encryption and exfiltration of data to take advantage of an organization’s documents, files, or other digital property. An attacker encrypts the victim’s data and then demands a ransom to provide access to the encrypted data. Cybercriminals usually demand that victims pay in cryptocurrency and oftentimes over the dark web.

Ransomware uses modern encryption technology. A variety of encryption mechanisms are used and there is no point to doing a deep dive on these mechanisms. The main point is that the encryption key acts as a mechanism to lock and unlock data that you may want encrypted or decrypted. In the case of ransomware, upon receipt of the ransom payment, attackers tend to give the victim the decryption key or a decryption tool so that they can again access their files, although this is not always the case. Some attackers simply take the ransom, and the victims do not get access to their data again.

There are several well-known types of ransomware, which will be covered later on. Most often, ransomware attacks are generated through email spam campaigns and phishing through fraudulent websites. Recent reports have shown that the complexity of phishing campaigns is increasing, making phishing harder to detect both by software and end-users.

Once a system is