RATTATA: Ransomware Analysis via Automated Impact Assessment of Philippine Organizations

Abstract

Contemporarily, Ransomware is a type of malicious software – Malware- that persists and evolves accordingly to organizational countermeasures. It aims to block user access to a system and its data, typically for monetary gain. Two major methods of doing so are the blatant blocking of a system’s use and the encryption of these data. This poses a significant threat to organizations, causing major financial losses and disclosure of confidential or sensitive data to unauthorized individuals, as attackers often exfiltrate the data in the process. In the Philippines, the general overview of the cybersecurity landscape has been explored and evaluated. It is observed that the country is particularly lacking in its investment in the field, with a misconception of its insignificance, despite its looming and ever-growing threats. This has caused major data leakages and compromised services in recent years. Despite these existing evaluations, there remains an opportunity to delve deeper into this for a richer understanding. This journal intends to provide the initial groundworks for this, by assessing Ransomware experiences and impacts in Philippine organizations of different sectors and correlating such with existing knowledge. This is particularly conducted by thoroughly evaluating the qualitative data and extracting its key features for its automated categorization.