You don’t know what you don’t know
Ransomware
IT teams generally use encryption to enable better security and data protection. However, in the hands of malicious parties, encryption can be utilized as a tool to prevent you from accessing your files and data. We have been aware of this kind of cyberattack for a long time, but the most recent attack by the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm was extensive, global and on the front page.
Under any circumstance, a ransomware exploit is terrible for an organization. The preliminary impact can cause extensive downtime and may put lives and livelihoods at risk. However, in the latest attack several hospitals, banks, and telecom providers found their names mentioned in the news as well, suffering damage to their reputations and losing the trust of patients and customers alike. For a thorough summary of the events, we refer you to the many articles, opinions and other publications about the WannaCry ransomware attacks. This article covers the rarely discussed secondary effects of ransomware attacks.
Data exploits
What should you do if you discover your data has been encrypted by ransomware?
When there is a loss of data control, most IT teams immediately think of avoiding unauthorized data disclosure and ensuring all sensitive materials remain confidential. And indeed, these are sound measures.
However, what if you can retrieve your organisation’s data because a decryption tool was made available by a third-party (experts recommend strongly against paying the ransom)? One may think that business can continue as usual and it can be assumed the data was not compromised or disclosed, right?
Who touched my hamburger?
Unfortunately, if no mechanism was in place beforehand to track if the retrieved data had maintained its integrity during the ransomware timeframe, one simply does not know. Thus it will not be clear whether it has been modified, manipulated, or otherwise altered. Are you willing to still eat that hamburger?
Furthermore, one does not know whether a copy has been made, either in part or as a whole. And, if a copy was made, IT teams cannot track where it is, and whether it left regulatory data zones such as the European Union or European Economic Area.
Secondary effect of ransomware
The loss of control described above is the secondary effect of a ransomware attack, which may be even more far-reaching than the original wave. With very little information about what happened to the data during the attack, it is up to the respective data controller or data processor to perform analysis on the long-term impact to the data, data subjects, and respective stakeholders.
Under the Dutch Security Breach Notification Act (WMD), established in 2016, data integrity breaches are a trigger to initiate the notification protocols, in the same way as confidentiality breaches and availability breaches are triggers. Under Article 33 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), loss of control is also a trigger to notify the data protection authorities.
In most cases it will be very difficult to demonstrate accurately that the breach has not resulted in a risk to the rights and freedoms of the respective natural persons (or as set forth in both the GDPR and WMD, the breach must not adversely affect the data, or adversely affect the privacy of the data subject), obligating the data controller to notify the authorities.
Besides notification, what other measures should be put in place to monitor irregular activities, and for how long? The window of liability for any identity thefts resulting from the breach will remain open for quite a while, so mitigating risk should be on the top of the priority list.
Encryption
Encrypting data and maintaining the encryption keys on site would not have spared an organization from falling victim to such an attack. However, it would enable the exposure to be significantly reduced. This would allow an organization to convey, with confidence that, by maintaining the original encryption keys on-premises, they were in complete control of the data, even when it was encrypted by the attackers using another set of keys.
Accountability
The GDPR is aimed to give data control back to the data subjects. Encryption is mentioned four (4) times in the GDPR, which will enter force within one year, on 25 May 2018. It is explicitly mentioned as an example of a security measure component that enables data controllers and data processors to meet the appropriate level of state-of-the-art security measures as set forth in article 32 of the GPDR. in real-life examples such as WannaCry and similar ransomware hacks it can also make the difference between control and loss of data, and the associated loss of trust and reputation.
The GDPR it is not about being compliant but about being accountable and ensuring up-to-date levels of protection by having layers of data protection and security in place to meet the appropriate dynamic accountability formula set forth in the GDPR. Continuously.
So, encryption can not only save embarrassing moments and loss of control after the ransomware or similar attacks, but it can also help organisations to keep data appropriately secure and therefore accountable.