If you’re into security, then you’ve probably heard about this term “Ransomware” more often than anything else. Ransomware attack is a trending topic these days and cyber attackers are continuously targeting different sectors to achieve financial gains using ransomware.
What exactly is ransomware?
A ransomware is a type of sophisticated malware that will encrypt your files in any devices to make it unusable. Basically, this malware will make all your files unreadable or encrypted so you can’t use them. Usually, a fee is demanded to free or “unencrypt” your data. This type of malware attack is called ransomware attack.
How this type of attack affect the society?
Let’s try to understand the big picture here. What happens when an organization becomes a victim of this type of attack? To simply put, they lose all or parts of their data and it causes a disruption in the service they provide.
Let’s look at an example from a recent ransomware attack: On may 7, colonial pipeline company, largest fuel carrier in the east coast of the US declared that they had fallen victim of a ransomware attack which halted their operation. Colonial pipeline carries 45% of the fuel consumed in the east coast all the way from Texas to New York. Due to the ransomware attack, the system has been shut down causing a catastrophic tension among the east coast states.
Now, if we think about the aftermath of this attack, what’s really at stake here? By numbers, colonial pipeline transports around 100 million gallons of fuel daily from Texas to New York. The numbers tell you the story here and it’s the shortage of fuel around the states. As a result, several states have declared emergency and people are rushing to gas stations to panic buy gas. There were long lines of vehicles in the gas stations and the traffic it created caused massive inconvenience for the public.
Unfortunately, this crisis due to the ransomware attack depicts a bigger picture of how society has been continuously depending on Cyber systems for years. Any type of attack on these infrastructures or any systems cause a dis-balance in the society. Especially, in a ransomware attack, the data that is being ransomed is usually for critical services or products that society is heavily dependent on. In this example, the product is the transportation fuel that we heavily rely on and with the service being disrupted, many people were panicking that it would be a huge issue in their daily commute. Apparently so, It became an issue not only for the consumers but also for the businesses relying on this product.
In a nutshell, as ransomware attacks are becoming a common phenomenon in the cyberspace, it’s imperative that companies and organizations think about how they can prevent themselves from this type of attack. Not only it’s their system, but also the society that is at the stake here.
What do you guys think about the impact of ransomware attacks in society? As the world advances with new technologies and people become more reliant on them, is it certain that these attacks will continue to have massive impact in the society?
References:
https://thehackernews.com/2021/05/ransomware-cyber-attack-forced-largest.html