IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICAL THEORY (IJCSMT )

E-ISSN 2545-5699
P-ISSN 2695-1924
VOL. 11 NO. 1 2025
DOI: 10.56201/ijcsmt.v11.no1.2025.pg84.96

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Development of a Predictive Model for Phishing and Ransomware Detection in Financial Institution Using a Random Forest Classifier and Outlier Technique

K.C. PAUL & V. T. EMMAH

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Abstract

Phishing and ransomware attacks are significant cyber threats that target financial institutions, aiming to deceive users and exploit vulnerabilities for malicious gains. Phishing attacks often involve fraudulent emails or websites that trick users into revealing sensitive information, while ransomware encrypts a victim's data and demands payment for its release. Both types of attacks pose severe risks to financial institutions, potentially leading to data breaches, financial losses, and reputational damage. To combat these threats, this paper proposed an advanced detection system using machine learning techniques. The proposed system focused on feature engineering and training a Random Forest classifier to detect phishing and ransomware attacks based on key attributes like URL structure and file characteristics. For phishing detection, features such as URL length, subdomains, and the presence of secure HTTPS protocols were extracted, while for ransomware detection, file name length, the presence of executable extensions, and suspicious

keywords:

Phishing, ransomware, attacks, cyber, institutions, detection, techniques

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