Are you worried about falling victim to a ransomware attack? You are not alone! It’s hard not to be when businesses suffer ransomware attacks every 40 seconds. Ransomware has become one of the most significant cyber threats in recent years, and its impact is only expected to grow in the future. As technology advances, so do the methods used by hackers to create and distribute ransomware, including polymorphic and fileless attacks. Therefore, it is essential to look for new methods for ransomware detection to stay ahead of these threats. In this post, we will take a peek into our crystal ball to take a glimpse at the future as well as explore some of the technologies and strategies for detecting polymorphic and fileless ransomware attacks before they can do serious damage. Read on to learn more and protect your organization from these insidious threats with DPX and GuardMode! 

Let’s Ask ChatGPT How the Future Will Look! 

If you ask ChatGPT about the future of ransomware detection you are likely going to get a nice explanation about how ransomware detection will continue evolving using a multi-layered approach that leverages new technologies, improved security practices, and collaboration among security professionals. Most likely you are also going to get a list of key areas that will make a difference. Let’s see what they are and how GuardMode – Catalogic’s ransomware detection extension for DPX data protection solution – is aligned with these. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning 

No doubt that AI will be something that you’d intuitively put in first place. AI and machine learning can help detect patterns and anomalies that may be indicative of a ransomware attack. These technologies can analyze large volumes of data in real-time to identify potential threats. An important thing to keep in mind is that any machine learning / AI solution is only as good as the data it has access to. GuardMode solution is constantly watching and recording data operations, so that in the future it will be able to finetune all types of detection strategies it offers, to the environment where it’s deployed. 

Behavior-based Detection 

According to our virtual friend, ChatGPT, future detection solutions will rely on behavior-based detection to look for unusual or suspicious behavior that may indicate an attack, rather than relying solely on signature-based detection, which can be ineffective against new or unknown threats. 

Behavior-based detection is something we’ve identified as a critical, must-have functionality when we started the development of GuardMode. Detecting any out-of-the-ordinary behavior on the monitored data helps you react faster or create automated workflows that will do that for you. 

A good example is the polymorphic and fileless ransomware types. These two are highly effective at evading detection and circumventing traditional security measures. Polymorphic ransomware can change its code and encryption keys to avoid detection, while fileless ransomware operates entirely in memory and uses legitimate system tools to avoid detection. It’s important to mention that while behavior-based detection might spot not only ransomware related activity, it will also identify misconfiguration of your infrastructure, user mistakes, or intentional misconduct. 

Improved Security Practices 

As ransomware attacks become more sophisticated, it’s important to implement a range of security practices, including regular data backups, multi-factor authentication, and employee training on how to recognize and respond to potential threats. That’s another recommendation on ChatGPT’s list and we find it absolutely correct. The better your data protection ecosystem is integrated and aware of its components, the faster and easier it is to ensure your shields are up, and if something bad happens, to help you get your data back. GuardMode was designed to enhance Catalogic’s DPX Enterprise Data Protection with an additional layer of security and set of important features that help the administrators to make sure they are backing up the correct, healthy data and that the source systems are ransomware symptoms-free. The integration between GuardMode and DPX will continue to evolve bringing more options for the users out of the box. Even today with the existing REST APIs. GuardMode’s alerts and notifications can be used to seal your systems, network shares, put certain binaries on quarantine and more. 

Integration with Other Security Technologies 

Finally, ChatGPT predicts that ransomware detection technologies may become more integrated with other security technologies, such as endpoint detection and response (EDR) and security information and event management (SIEM) systems. This integration can help improve the overall effectiveness of ransomware detection and response. Another great point and one more for GuardMode. I’ve mentioned earlier that REST APIs can be used for integration. It’s still the case for EDRs, XDRs or SIEMs. However, for this purpose GuardMode can seamlessly publish valuable information using Syslog, so that any other element of your security infrastructure can easily consume it and augment the security picture with information about data-related anomalies, processes, files, and users involved. The more information and the better it’s correlated, the more accurate reaction from your systems and personnel will be. 

Conclusion 

This was a fun exercise! ChatGPT, even with the data it has been trained with stopping before 2022, builds a pretty accurate (however very high-level) picture of the direction in which ransomware will evolve and how ransomware detection solutions will have to adapt. It also puts a smile on our faces as all the points mentioned by ChatGPT are imprinted into GuardMode’s DNA from the very start.

Our final conclusion is that the future of ransomware detection looks promising. While the statement that “the Ransomware attacks have become more sophisticated over the years, making it difficult for antivirus software to detect and prevent them” will remain true for years to come, we believe that detection solutions will improve the situation. With the development of new technologies such as machine learning and behavior-based detection, and the continued collaboration between security vendors and researchers, we can expect to see more effective solutions for detecting and preventing ransomware attacks in the future. We need to keep reminding ourselves how important it is that security is a layered approach and something you have to build and maintain continuously. With GuardMode enhancing DPX data protection capabilities, it is the additional security layer that is focused on your data, that you should have. Contact us to learn more and get a demonstration of GuardMode. 

According to Statista reports, total enterprise data volume was estimated to increase significantly, rising from approximately 1 petabyte to 2.02 petabytes, which represents an average annual growth of 42.2% (Expected enterprise data volume by location 2022 | Statista ). It’s important to note that the majority of this data will be stored in internally managed data centers.

This is a lot of enterprise data. With the fast pace of cloud storage adoption, that is in some cases entirely transparent to the end user, we don’t even realize how much data we collect … and how much we have to protect.

Unfortunately, with the growing amount of data, and its importance, ransomware attacks continue to be a growing concern for businesses of all sizes. In recent years, the number of ransomware attacks has skyrocketed, causing significant damage to businesses and individuals alike. While traditional antivirus and anti-malware software can provide some level of protection, these solutions are often limited in their ability to detect early and track these types of attacks.

GuardMode is a solution that provides an additional layer of protection to a backup and recovery solution, specifically for ransomware and ransomware-like threat detection. GuardMode helps detect and alert administrators about suspicious activity in real-time, minimize the impact of an attack on the user’s data and systems, and help roll back just the affected data, without having to revert to a full point-in-time snapshot. In this blog post, we’ll explore two real-life examples of ransomware attacks and how GuardMode detects their abnormal behavior and then helps to mitigate and recovery from the damage.

WannaCry Ransomware

WannaCry is one of the most famous ransomware attacks of all time. This strain of ransomware was discovered in May of 2017, and it quickly spread across the globe, infecting hundreds of thousands of computers in over 150 countries. The WannaCry attack used a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows to spread rapidly and infect systems. Reporter Connor Jones of ITPro points out in a recent article that many fail to realize that after 5 years, WannaCry’s ghost, still actively lurks on the ransomware landscape.

GuardMode, with its real-time monitoring’ and behavior-based detection techniques, as well as built-in decoy files deployment, is able to detect the abnormal file access patterns and unusual process execution associated with WannaCry. The software would then alert the backup admin and IT operations team immediately, allowing them to take action before the ransomware had the chance to encrypt their files.

With support for both Windows and Linux machines, GuardMode can detect suspicious patterns and ransomware-specific extensions on file shares. Repeated alerts trigger an automation that would lock down file-shares to read-only and would alert the IT and Security teams to take action immediately.

Furthermore, by integrating GuardMode with a backup and recovery solution such as Catalogic DPX, the orginazation gains an additional layer of recovery.  Through the usage of a REST API and syslog, administrators get an option to automate on-demand snapshots or backups, and gain the ability to roll back just the affected data, given GuardMode is tracking all the encrypted files on the system.

Ryuk Ransomware

Ryuk is another well-known strain of ransomware that has been responsible for significant damage in recent years. Ryuk is typically used in targeted attacks against large organizations, and it is known for its ability to cause substantial damage in a short amount of time. It’s important to remember that typically during a malware attack, the attackers map the network, identify critical systems and gather information about the target’s infrastructure, so later they can use techniques such as Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) or Server Message Block (SMB) to move from one compromised system to another, escalating privileges and expanding their control over the network. Once the attackers have control over the target network, they run the Ryuk ransomware and encrypt files on the file shares, workstations, and servers. The ransomware will typically also delete shadow or backup copies of files and stop certain critical services.

With GuardMode in place, the software is able detect the abnormal behavior associated with Ryuk. With the ability to track file activity, GuardMode could be configured to detect new binaries being installed on systems where no installations should be performed. This allows IT admins to take action before the ransomware had the chance to encrypt their data. Additionally, as Ryuk is a rapid encryption ransomware, GuardMode can quickly detect typical thresholds being surpassed and send an alert allowing Administrators to take immediate action. Ryuk is known to place a RyukReadMe.txt file that contains detailed information about ransom payment – that is yet another thing that GuardMode is looking for to warn users as soon as possible. Furthermore, by integrating with a backup solution, GuardMode can make a copy of backup data available for recovery through a guided recovery mechanism, even if the ransomware was successful in encrypting files.

Conclusion

Ransomware attacks are a growing concern for businesses of all sizes, and traditional antivirus and anti-malware software can only do so much. Recent research from IBM (Cost of a data breach 2022) found that the average breach lifecycle takes 287 days, with organizations taking 212 days to initially detect a breach and 75 days to contain it. The same study revealed there was a 94.34% reduction in the average duration of ransomware attacks between 2019 and 2021, from over two months to just a little more than three days. Taking the above into account, it’s clear that with the advanced and more sophisticated ways of avoiding heuristic-based detection mechanisms, it’s more challenging to detect and block malicious software. GuardMode, with its real-time monitoring and behavior-based detection techniques, provides an additional layer of data protection that can do early detection and alert the administrator or other systems of these types of malware attacks.

By integrating GuardMode with a backup and recovery solution like Catalogic DPX, businesses can minimize the impact of a ransomware attack and ensure the rapid and precise recovery of their data. DPX offers an integrated web-based management console for GuardMode, allowing for easier configuration, maintenance, and alerting.

Contact us to learn more about GuardMode and how it can enhance your security posture and how can it seamlessly integrate with your existing infrastructure. We will demonstrate GuardMode in action, and help you integrate and fine-tune GuardMode to fully utilize its potential using your existing infrastructure.