Security News > 2020 > May > New software enables existing sensors to detect ransomware

Engineers from SMU's Darwin Deason Institute for Cybersecurity have developed software to detect ransomware attacks before attackers can inflict catastrophic damage.

Unlike existing methods, such as antivirus software or other intrusion detection systems, SMU's new software works even if the ransomware is new and has not been used before.

This detection method is known as sensor-based ransomware detection because the software doesn't rely on information from past ransomware infections to spot new ones on a computer.

"Right now, there's little protection for zero-day ransomware, but this new software spots zero-day ransomware more than 95 percent of the time."

The new software also can scan a computer for ransomware much faster than existing software, said Mike Taylor, lead creator of the software and a Ph.D. student at SMU. "The results of testing this technique indicate that rogue encryption processes can be detected within a very small fraction of the time required to completely lock down all of a user's sensitive data files," Taylor noted.

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