Major Sources of Ransomware Attack in Computer System

Major Sources of Ransomware Attack in Computer System

May 31, 2017

Computer user might have heard about Ransomware which is the most popular computer virus (Encryption program) affecting people around the world at an increasing pace. Ransomware is getting really popular behind the reason of demand of ransom from the victim user to remove the ransomware encryption on user’s computer system.

Before getting into the major sources of ransomware, let get some brief of Ransomware. Ransomware can’t be called completely a virus but correctly termed as Encryption Program. Ransomware gets into user’s computer system make the data files or operating system inaccessible to the user. When the victim tries to access the blocked data files or operating system, Ransomware shows a warning message the file/OS has been locked by Ransomware and the ransom amount need to be paid to the victim get unblock the files/OS.

There are broadly three categories of Ransomware known at the present namely:

Encryption Ransomware which gets into users computer & starts encrypting the data files present in computer system, making them inaccessible to the user.
Locker Ransomware which doesn’t allow user from accessing the storage drives, desktop and other apps by locking the victim out of the operating system. It doesn’t allow the user to login to the operating system and shows a warning of ransomware attack and notice for ransom payment.
MBR Ransomware which doesn’t allows Master Boot Record to boot the operating system and blocks the computer system from loading. This is the most annoying ransomware attack as it attacks the MBR which is responsible for booting the operating system.

Now let’s see into the major sources of Ransomware attack to your computer system:

Through Email Attachments

The most common source of Ransomware attack is through email attachments which comes along with the emails generally from trusted domains which the user does have trust on. These Ransomware email can come on webmail, outlook, and Gmail as well. The most common form of ransomware attachment is in the form of invoice from company’s domain. When the user opens the attachment from the email, the Ransomware gets into users storage devices and starts infecting the computer system depending on its functionality. Some ransomware encrypts the data files present on computer system, blocks the login to operating making desktop, apps, and drives in accessible to the user and sometimes block the MBR (Master Boot Record) from loading the operating system. Ransomware always shows a message of “Your Computer has been locked by Ransomware” and ask the victim to pay a ransom amount to unlock the blocked files, OS or MBR. There is no guarantee that the hacker will provide the unlock key to the victim after receiving the ransom amount.

Through Downloads from Spam Websites

With the increase in download speed, computer user tends to download software from spam website for free software offered by them. Now a day, ransomware attacks have been reported through the spam download websites which claims to provide free download of software to the user. When user downloads the software from such websites, Ransomware also gets downloaded along with it and starts infecting the data files and operating system.

We do recommend computer users that they should never open emails from unknown sources and if they are opening it, then never open the attachment or download the same as it might be an attempt of ransomware attack. There might be some case where the user gets a ransomware attack from trusted emails. In such cases, if the user has some doubt about the source of the email, then we recommend that they should first check the reliability of the email and then only open the attachment in the same. We also recommend user not to download free antivirus software from spam website which might result in bug financial losses to the victim.

That’s it in today’s discussion on “Sources of Ransomware Attack”.

We do believe that the information which is flourished above and correct as per our research. But we always welcome comments or suggestion regarding the above discussion. We would be obliged to receive any thoughts from our readers.

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