2019-11-14 Review of Ransomware Kill Chain and Defence
Review - Ransomware – Kill Chain and Defence!
Presentation on Thursday 14 November, 6.00-8.00pm, Room A004
Speaker: Geraint Williams, CISO, GRC International Group.
Arranged by the CST School’s BCS Student Chapter / Beds Computing SU Society
On Thursday, 14 November the CST School was privileged to once again welcome Geraint Williams, CISO, GRC International Group, to share his in-depth knowledge, research and practical experience of the phenomenon of Ransomware.
The session was very well attended with enthusiastic students from Years 1 to MSc level as well as external visitors, and there were a large number of questions from the audience as well as during the networking session at the end of the talk.
Ransomware has been a major threat to organisations and individual over the last few years. Infections waned at the end of last year but have risen in the first half of this year with new code innovations and much more targeted approach being deployed.
The LockerGoga ransomware, for example, hit a Norwegian manufacturing company and halted production in several of its plants in March, eventually resulting in over US$ 55 million (£45 million) in financial losses. In addition, the city of Baltimore, Maryland, had incurred US$ 5.3 million (£4.3 million) in recovery costs after its systems were infected with the Robin Hood ransomware in May.
This presentation looked at the phenomenon of ransomware and reviewed the ransomware kill chain detailing the stages a ransomware attack goes through. A review was included of a case study of a blended attack that cumulated in ransomware denotating which involving an agricultural company in the UK. The session finished by going the steps that can help to protect you against attack.
Speaker’s Profile
Geraint Williams is the CISO at GRC International Group. Geraint is a knowledgeable and experienced Information Security consultant with experience including vulnerability testing, digital forensics, secure networking, and wireless security issues.
Geraint has a strong technical knowledge of security and IT infrastructure including high performance computing. Geraint has a number of certifications in security and digital forensics including CISSP, CISA, CEH and CHFI and is a Qualified Security Assessor for the Payment Card Industry (PCI).
The CST School is once again very grateful to Geraint for so readily giving up his valuable time to share his expertise and passion for all things related to cybersecurity with our Computing students. Geraint will be back in the New Year to deliver a practical hands-on workshop on Weaponised PDFs.