Introduction
The research article, A Study of Ransomware, is written by Sharad et al., which focuses on different malware used to steal user data and ask them to pay. The authors provide insights on different definitions of ransomware through the article, which shows that the malware can be disguised in various forms. In writing, Sharad et al. also express the concerns of handling the attacks and how an individual can predict ransomware (Jongbin et al., 2017). The authors have written this piece since they are victims of ransomware ‘I was told to but software or lose my computer. I ignored it’, in the phrase, Sharad et al. have been victims before: hence, through writing the piece, they can create a study and risk assessment on ransomware between 2016 and 2017.
The article also discusses some key concepts, such as an estimated number of fallen victims to ransomware. According to the FBI internet complaint, a record of $5 million losses with 4000 attacks had been blocked between 2016 and 2017 (Internet crime report, 2016). The authors also explain how to deal with the attacks, which involves teaching the affected party on encrypting their files, operating in safe mode, and changing security habits. Lastly, the article also shows some steps to conduct a risk assessment in ransomware and predict future ransomware.
Methodology
The researcher uses survey questions to form a risk assessment analysis based on reports from a representative sample of 1180 adults. The adults were registered through YouGov, an online global research firm (YouGov, 2017). The adults described what they saw from the selection, i.e., ‘it popped up, and I was told to pay $500 to access my computer and then answer research questions. Some of the questions used in this study include: ‘is your hard drive encrypted, is your laptop password-protected for login, and how do you frequently download files online? With these questions, the researchers explore the possibilities of their victims falling prey to malware schemes and how to avoid them. Through the methodology, the authors can gather evidence that 2 percent out of the 1180 sample sets have been victims of ransomware and how they can predict and handle ransomware.
Study Findings and Results
The article shows that a more significant number of victims have been affected by ransomware in one way or the other. The 2 percent out of the sample size, in this case, projects a more significant number of individuals when dealing with millions of users. It is estimated that there were over 40000 blocked attacks in the USA between 2016 and 2017. With these attacks, the authors quickly established their nature related to computer locks and file encryption. However, the authors point out that the study may be biased since the self-reports obtained do not detect malware and may be due to embarrassment in scenarios where the victim paid for ransomware but denied it to fit in the study.
Conclusion
The author’s role in writing the case study is to create awareness of ransomware and how to go about it. In this case, that has been achieved, and an internet user can distinguish between malware and a self-encrypted file. The research methods used in this case also provide first-hand information. The survey questions also make it easy to establish the attackers’ common malware on unsuspecting internet users. This piece, therefore, leads to further study since the field has not been fully explored. The methodology used in the article, in this case, is cost-effective and takes a shorter period to establish and analyze responses to assess risks of ransomware which is advantageous. On the other hand, the article has its weaknesses since it has not explored solutions to fight perpetrators of ransomware attacks which are on the rise.
References
Jongbin Jung, Connor Concannon, Ravi Shroff, SharadGoel, and Daniel G Goldstein(2017). Simple rules for complex decisions.
YouGov, 2017 The YouGov online panel. Technical report (2018). Web.
Internet crime report (2016). Technical report, Inter-net Crime Complaint Center, Federal Bureau of Investigation (2018). Web.