MGMT2200 Critical Thinking And Analysis

Critical Analysis for Justifying the Need for Managing Security of Digital Information and Information Systems in WannaCry Ransomware Attack

According to Mohurle and Patil 2017, ransomware virus software is one of the most significant and vulnerable software that is being used by the attackers for spreading vulnerabilities. This type of virus is the malicious software, which threatens for publishing the confidential data or perpetually blocking the access to that data, until and unless a specific ransom is being paid. The WannaCry Ransomware attack occurred in May 2017 by a ransomware cryptoworm, known as WannaCry worm. The threat was spread throughout the world. The several systems, which were running the operating system of Microsoft Windows, were targeted in the attack.

As per Mattei 2017, the privacy, confidentiality and security of the digital information as well as information systems for the WannaCry ransomware attack is extremely important and significant. The ransomware affected more than 200000 computers in about 150 countries. The security and confidentiality of these computers were highly required for preventing the access of the sensitive information and data. This WannaCry ransomware took advantage of the inherent vulnerability of the Microsoft Windows. Although the overall patch was free for the users, who are running the Windows versions, extra payment was required for excess security. Moreover, this type of information systems should also have end users’ security.

Yaqoob et al. 2017 state that, the increase of usages of smart phones, sensors and computers had led to the vulnerable attack of WannaCry ransomware. The major security concerns of this attack are being checked after this attack took place. The security awareness was extremely important for raising the total information security or information systems’ security. This helped in ensuring security as well as privacy issues that were common for the organization that had faced WannaCry ransomware attack. The next requirement of the information system security is that innovation is eventually supported by this method. A proper security strategy is required for this purpose and hence freedom is enabled for using the new technologies.

According to Thomas and Galligher 2018, the backup systems are to be evaluated within the information security risk assessments for combating ransomware. For the WannaCry ransomware attack, most of the information systems did not have the ability for backup systems and hence the organizations or victims were not at all prepared. Thus, the attackers were able to exploit all types of sensitive data or information. The information security risk assessment is the significant procedure for performing the objective analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of the security controls of the organization. This would be helpful for the protection of several assets and then determination of the loss, which is to be incurred for those specific assets.

Therefore, from the above critical analysis, it could be concluded that the requirement of the security management is extremely important for the digital information as well as the information system. The most basic methods of this security management are extraction of data, synthesizing the data and utilizing the scoping review for conducting the field mapping. Furthermore, innovation and data protection are enhanced by this technique. The interoperability and integration are also supported for the information security, compliance management and privacy. The WannaCry ransomware attack had substantially proved that there is a requirement of better security management for controlling the various risks and threats.

Reducing Impact of WannaCry Ransomware Attack and Prevention of a Current Experience

Reducing Impact of Ransomware: The overall impact of the WannaCry Ransomware could have been reduced to a greater level by including various cyber security methods. These are given below:

iii) Restriction of Administrative Rights: The significant administrative rights should be eventually restricted so that the unauthorized users do not get any hold of the data (Zimba, Simukonda and Chishimba 2017).

Personal Experience: I had once faced similar situation for ransomware attack in my school. One of the attackers had acquired the passwords of the computer systems’ in our school and then demanded for ransom from the school authorities. These computer systems consisted of all the confidential and sensitive data that were not to be exploited under any circumstances. A proper risk management was present for reducing the information security threats and vulnerabilities, however, our school’s systems were not protected with top rated antivirus and firewalls. Hence, this ransomware took place. However, with the timely involvement of two cyber security experts, we were able to stop the threat from spreading any further and thus our systems were protected.

References

Mattei, T.A., 2017. Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security of Health Care Information: Lessons from the Recent WannaCry Cyberattack. World neurosurgery, 104, pp.972-974.

Mohurle, S. and Patil, M., 2017. A brief study of wannacry threat: Ransomware attack 2017. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science, 8(5).

Thomas, J. and Galligher, G., 2018. Improving backup system evaluations in information security risk assessments to combat ransomware.

Thomas, J., 2018. Individual cyber security: Empowering employees to resist spear phishing to prevent identity theft and ransomware attacks.

Yaqoob, I., Ahmed, E., ur Rehman, M.H., Ahmed, A.I.A., Al-garadi, M.A., Imran, M. and Guizani, M., 2017. The rise of ransomware and emerging security challenges in the Internet of Things. Computer Networks, 129, pp.444-458.

Zimba, A., Simukonda, L. and Chishimba, M., 2017. Demystifying Ransomware Attacks: Reverse Engineering and Dynamic Malware Analysis of WannaCry for Network and Information Security. Zambia ICT Journal, 1(1), pp.35-40.