How To Detect And Respond To Malware Incidents

The concept of the security management of the business assets / EC-Council Malware incidents are easily visible to either a user or a consum...

The concept of the security management of the business assets / EC-Council

Malware incidents are easily visible to either a user or a consumer using visual indicators. For instance, ransomware, a type of malware, can take over your system and trigger popups that make payment demands or limit the resources utility in your system. Adware, on the other hand, brings up popups or system tray icons that contain websites or ads. Clearly, malware can present itself in multiple forms which are designed to compromise the safety of a device and data stored in the company infrastructure.

Malware incidents also allow cybercriminals to access data that can be used to cause personal harm and losses. Detecting and responding to malware incidents is therefore important for every individual and business.

Detecting Malware Incidents

In a business setting, when one is working as an IT Security Manager, one’s task does not only revolve around protecting against malware but also by being resilient, being informed about new malware, forming a preventive defense team and creating action protocols. According to EC-Council, all these are meant to ensure efficient detection of malware while making sure everyone in the business is aligned with the objectives of the company in terms of security. There are several ways below in which businesses can help ensure efficient detection of malware incidents, which help reveal the scope and relevance of the malware incident:

• Traffic anomalies: Connections and servers in businesses that are secure usually have a relatively stable traffic volume. If a business experiences an abnormal increase in traffic, then this may be a sign of a malware incident. Usually, employee and director accounts follow a hierarchy that is defined by the information they are allowed to access. Employees are normally the easiest entry point in a malware incident. If an employee’s connection privileges are exposed and their account sees a sudden increase in use or access to privileges above their qualification, then this may be an indicator of a malware incident in the business’ infrastructure.
• Excessive consumption of memory and suspicious files: If the business detects an increased performance in its memory capacity or hard drives, that may indicate that someone is leaking data or accessing them illicitly. This may be the case if the security IT manager finds a suspicious file of any size that is trying to remain hidden.
• Effective contextualization of the possible threats and incidents: While not many IT security managers are able to have an easy time when prioritizing the alarm level for malware incidents that may arise, businesses having the right robust structure of hierarchies are important in improving the risk management of malware incidents.
• Managing false positives: False positives are mainly the reason why business IT managers ignore new threats that may prove viable. As such, companies need to have the necessary detection tools that help point out false positives.
• Technology Solutions: IT security managers are not expected to spend most of their time in manually detecting possible alerts. Therefore, businesses should have effective technology in place to ensure all these possible alerts are detected.

Responding to Malware Incidents

Containment

Once a malware incident is confirmed, one of the first tasks when responding is containment. Containment is not meant to be a definitive solution to a malware incident but a temporary fix that helps avoid the spread of the malware while limiting its impact. 

The containment strategy depends on several factors, including the type of malware incidents and the number or function of systems that end up being affected. Containment can be as easy as disconnecting the affected system from the network. However, it can prove slightly difficult as it may involve complex solutions that involves removing an infected server from a network or activating corresponding plans on data recovery.

Data Recovery and Preventing Data Loss

When affected systems are both identified and contained, the next step involves identifying the affected files and restoring the systems back to their normal state. The exact removal depends on the malware identified. One response could easily involve installing or reinstalling updated antimalware solutions. Another response could involve undertaking a scan or even manually removing registry entries or protected files, which might prove complex.