91����’s Dr Abubakar Bello is developing proactive security and defence strategies to thwart cyber criminals using ransomware.

Bello, a lecturer at Western’s School of Social Sciences, explains that ransomware attacks often begin with malicious software encrypting a user’s system or personal files, followed by a demand for the victim to pay before they can regain access to the files.

The emerging internet of things (IoT) will make society even vulnerable to hackers, he adds. In future, individual smart appliances could be infected and rendered inoperable. With some ransom demands as little as AUD$20, it may be easier to pay than repair any damaged caused by the criminals.

To dig into this, Bello and his colleagues have conducted interviews with executives and managers from several financial, technology, construction, transportation, education, and health industries looking to uncover the human behavioural factors that are making ransomware so profitable for online thieves. Via these interviews, Bello saw significant gaps in everything from basic knowledge to more sophisticated understandings of how cybercriminals gain access to a user’s technology through ‘social vectors’, such as phishing emails or software automatically downloaded via certain websites. Many interviewees somewhat mistakenly assumed miscreant behaviour was behind breaches, rather than the increasing sophistication of attacks, he says.

As part of the broader defense picture, Bello is linking up with local corporations and government organisations to help provide cybersecurity audits and risk management services. This includes Gridware, an Australian firm focused on cyber defence. Gridware’s involvement in mutual projects will include the development of artificial intelligence and machine-learning based monitoring and reporting technologies, as well as incident response and management control frameworks.

While these will be important, Bello thinks user training and awareness plays a major role in defending against the psychological vectors often involved in ransomware attacks. Some of his work has aimed to identify what type of cybersecurity awareness and education programmes are needed to protect against ransomware attacks.

“Traditional education forms didn’t work so well,” he says. People needed the interactivity of simulations, virtual labs and gamified learning to help them really grasp real-world attack vectors, he explains. “Cyber criminals are constantly changing their tricks for gaining access, so these trainings will also need to constantly adapt,” he adds.

“Even in cyber-advanced nations like the US, where several government-sponsored security initiatives encourage secure cyber behaviour, there is a lack of protective measures against current and future methods of ransomware attacks.”