Ever for the reason that WannaCry assault in 2017, ransomware has remained probably the most important cyber threats worldwide. Ransomware is a sort of malicious software program that encrypts knowledge on a sufferer’s gadget, rendering it inaccessible. The attacker then calls for a ransom, normally within the type of cryptocurrency, to revive the information.
Cisco Talos, one of many largest non-public risk intelligence groups in world, tracks ransomware tendencies throughout all their incident response engagements. Ransomware and pre-ransomware had been concerned in 20% of Talos engagements in Q1 2023. Pre-ransomware is an assault the place ransomware is current however by no means executes and encrypts knowledge.
There are many alternative methods to fight ransomware, however Security Service Edge (SSE) options have a selected benefit as a result of they’ll disrupt ransomware actions throughout quite a few factors within the kill chain. SSE is a single, cloud-delivered resolution centered on offering customers safe entry to the Internet, cloud providers, and personal apps. And it may present these advantages to customers no matter whether or not they’re positioned remotely, at a department workplace, or company headquarters.
SSE disrupts ransomware throughout a number of layers
SSE can assist fight ransomware with a variety of safety features akin to
DNS safety enforces insurance policies on area title resolutions, stopping customers from accessing domains related to malicious actions. This blocks malicious web sites that trick customers into downloading ransomware. It additionally blocks entry on the DNS degree to command-and-control (C2) servers, that are utilized by the risk actor to speak with their malware. This interruption of the C2 channel hampers the attacker’s skill to regulate the contaminated gadget and might stop the encryption course of from being initiated.
DNS safety may block DNS tunneling, a method wherein the ransomware surreptitiously makes use of the DNS protocol to speak with its C2 servers or exfiltrate knowledge. There are a couple of methods to do that, and detecting the method sometimes requires defenders to dig by logs and search for anomalous queries or different indicators. It’s engaging for attackers as a result of it’s comparatively easy to do and received’t be detected by many safety instruments.
In addition to DNS, SWG protects customers from ransomware by inspecting internet visitors in real-time. This consists of SSL decryption, which ensures that ransomware communications can not cover in encrypted visitors.
Cloud-delivered firewalls examine visitors on the IP layer, enabling organizations to dam visitors to identified malicious IP addresses over non-web ports. For instance, many ransomware risk actors make the most of distant desktop protocol on port 3389 or safe shell protocol on port 22. Famously, the WannaCry variant of ransomware utilized the server message block protocol on port 445. Cloud-delivered firewalls permit defenders to observe and management visitors on these ports and protocols, and block communication over these ports to malicious IP addresses.
In Q1 2023, Talos additionally noticed for the primary time engagements involving Daxian ransomware, a more moderen ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) household. This attacker usually compromises VPNs to achieve preliminary entry to a community after which makes use of that VPN entry to unfold ransomware all through the community, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In one occasion, the attacker exploited a vulnerability within the VPN. In one other one, they had been in a position to brute drive weak VPN credentials to achieve entry.
This risk actor highlights the shortcomings of VPN. Once an attacker can compromise a company VPN, they’ll achieve wide-ranging entry to something on the community, permitting them to extensively unfold ransomware. The approach to stop this kind of assault is to undertake a zero-trust structure, the place customers are given entry solely to the assets that they want as an alternative of all the pieces on the community.
SSE makes use of ZTNA to create a zero-trust method to personal app entry. ZTNA supplies safe distant entry to personal apps primarily based on application-specific entry management insurance policies. If an attacker is ready to compromise this mechanism, they solely get entry to that utility – not the whole community. This prevents the attacker from spreading ransomware in all places all through the community.
Conclusion
Ransomware assaults can have lengthy, sophisticated kill chains that embody quite a few methods to achieve preliminary entry, obtain persistence, unfold the malware, and at last execute the encryption. SSE successfully disrupts this kill chain at a number of factors. It blocks customers from accessing malicious web sites which will infect their machine with malware, prevents the ransomware from speaking with its C2 servers throughout a number of layers, and limits ransomware unfold by implementing zero belief community entry for personal functions.
Read extra about how Cisco can defend you in opposition to ransomware, or study extra about Security Service Edge (SSE).
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