On July 14, 2021, the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence1 (NCCoE) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology2 (NIST) hosted a virtual workshop3 to seek feedback from government and industry experts on practical approaches to preventing and recovering from ransomware and other destructive cyberattacks. After we wrote up our feedback for NIST, we realized it would be helpful to share this perspective more broadly to help organizations better protect themselves against the rising tide of (highly profitable) ransomware attacks. While ransomware and extortion attacks are still evolving rapidly, we want to share a few critical lessons learned and shed some light on common misconceptions about ransomware attacks.
One common misconception about ransomware attacks is that they only involve ransomware—”pay me to get your systems and data back”—but these attacks have actually evolved into general extortion attacks. While ransom is still the main monetization angle, attackers are also stealing sensitive data (yours and your customers’) and threatening to disclose or sell it on the dark web or internet (often while holding onto it for later extortion attempts and future attacks).
We’re also seeing a widespread perception that ransomware is still constrained to basic cryptolocker style attacks, first seen in 2013, that only affect a single computer at a time (also known as the commodity model). Today’s attackers have evolved far beyond this—using toolkits and sophisticated affiliate business models to enable human operators to target whole organizations, deliberately steal admin credentials, and maximize the threat of business damage to targeted organizations. The ransomware operators often buy login credentials to organizations from other attack groups, rapidly turning what seems like low-priority malware infections into significant business risks.
We’ve also seen that many organizations still struggle with where to start, especially smaller operations with limited staff and experience. We believe all organizations should begin with simple and straightforward prioritization of efforts (three steps) and we have published this, along with why each priority is important.
Figure 1: Recommended mitigation prioritization.
Microsoft has also found that many organizations struggle with the next level of the planning process. As a result, we built guidance to make following these steps as clear and easy as possible. Microsoft already works with NIST NCCoE on several efforts, including the Zero Trust effort, which supports Presidential Executive Order (EO) 14028 on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. We welcome the opportunity for any additional ransomware-related work by providing clarifying guidance using whatever tools and technologies organizations have available.
Figure 2: Secure backup instructions from Microsoft’s human-operated ransomware page.
Based on our experience with ransomware attacks, we’ve found that prioritization should focus on these three steps: prepare, limit, and prevent. This may seem counterintuitive since most people want to simply prevent an attack and move on. But the unfortunate truth is that we must assume breach (a key Zero Trust principle) and focus on reliably mitigating the most damage first. This prioritization is critical because of the high likelihood of a worst-case scenario with ransomware. While it’s not a pleasant truth to accept, we’re facing creative and motivated human attackers who are adept at finding a way to control the complex real-world environments in which we operate. Against that reality, it’s important to prepare for the worst and establish frameworks to contain and prevent attackers’ abilities to get what they’re after.
While these priorities should govern what to do first, we encourage organizations to run as many steps in parallel as possible (including pulling quick wins forward from step three whenever you can).
To counter the threat of ransomware, it’s critical to identify, secure, and be ready to recover high-value assets—whether data or infrastructure—in the likely event of an attack. This requires a sustained effort involving obtaining buy-in from the top level of your organization (like the board) to get IT and security stakeholders working together asking nuanced questions. For example, what are the critical parts of the business that could be disrupted? Which digital assets map to these business segments (files, systems, databases)? How can we secure these assets? This process may be challenging, but it will help set up your organization to make impactful changes using the steps recommended above.
To learn more, visit our page on how to rapidly protect against ransomware and extortion.
To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.
1National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.
2National Institute of Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce.
3Virtual Workshop on Preventing and Recovering from Ransomware and Other Destructive Cyber Events, National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, 14 July 2021.
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