A Systematic Comparison of Ransomware Protection through Comprehensive Analysis for Effective Detection

Data is the critical asset in today's world that must be protected. Organizations of all sizes are now at risk due to their reliance on the internet, cloud computing, big data, IoT devices, and remote working. The necessity to safeguard our data and applications from an increasing multitude of impending dangers is paramount, regardless of whether we are operating an on-premises data center or utilizing a public cloud facility. Among various cyberattacks, Ransomware is considered one of the most critical and damaging forms of cyberattacks. Ransomware attacks have become one of the most popular and damaging cyber threats, which requires advanced early detection methods. This study is a complete review of the types of ransomware attacks, their evolution, and the manner of attack alongside the ransomware attack chain, namely, illustrating stages from infiltration to encryption. Early detection, therefore, is critically relied upon to minimize damage and minimize data breaches, and the study highlights there are various detection methods that fall into signature-based, behavior-based and heuristic-based detection. Current methods have been successful in detecting some known and unknown attacks; however, according to the review, there is still room for development in real-time, adaptive attacks detection with scalability in the environment.