Ransomware–Detection and Prevention via Hillstone’s Intelligent Next-Generation Firewall

On Black Friday 2016, a powerful ransomware attack slammed San Francisco's Muni light rail system, threatening to destroy more than 30GB of critical database, email, staff training, payroll, ticketing and other system data, unless Muni paid perpetrators 100 Bitcoin (worth roughly $70,000). Muni refused, throwing its ticketing system offline for two days, and forcing the agency to absorb thousands of free passenger rides. Cisco’s 2016 Midyear Cybersecurity Report, declares ransomware “the most profitable malware type in history,” echoing other studies that have tracked ransomware’s rapid ascendance to one of the most prevalent and virulent enterprise security threats across all business sectors. According to a June 2016 Osterman Research survey, almost one out of every three surveyed organizations suffered a ransomware attack in the previous 12 months.