Detecting Ransomware Through Power Analysis
Abstract
Cyber criminals are increasingly using malicious programs to take control of and exploit individuals, businesses, and governments data. A large portion of malware is a type called ransomware, which finds away to restrict the infected users access to data until a payment is obtained. Current detection solutions include programs that analyze file system changes and registry events, employ honeypot techniques, and identify anomalies in network patterns. This research presents an algorithm developed to detect ransom ware by analyzing a computers power consumption. Specifically, the algorithm identifies features of the computers power consumption that are indicative of encryption operations. We can successfully identify encryption of files with sizes of 500MB and greater with a high degree of success. By applying our encryption detection algorithm to the Cryptographic Ransomware, we are able to successfully identify the execution of WannaCry Ransomware samples.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1060003
Entities
People
- Jacob D Melton
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School