Next Generation Cryptographic Ransomware

Interdisciplinary Research Group in Socio-technical Cybersecurity

Next Generation Cryptographic Ransomware

Ziya Alper Genç, Gabriele Lenzini, Peter Y. A. Ryan
Abstract:
We are assisting at an evolution in the ecosystem of cryptoware - the malware that encrypts files and makes them unavailable unless the victim pays up. New variants are taking the place once dominated by older versions; incident reports suggest that forthcoming ransomware will be more sophisticated, disruptive, and targeted. Can we anticipate how such future generations of ransomware will work in order to start planning on how to stop them? We argue that among them there will be some which will try to defeat current anti-ransomware; thus, we can speculate over their working principle by studying the weak points in the strategies that seven of the most advanced anti-ransomware are currently implementing. We support our speculations with experiments, proving at the same time that those weak points are in fact vulnerabilities and that the future ransomware that we have imagined can be effective.
Authors:
Ziya Alper Genç, Gabriele Lenzini, Peter Y. A. Ryan
Publication date:
2018
Published in:
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Reference:
Genç, Z. A., Lenzini, G., & Ryan, P. Y. (2018, November). Next generation cryptographic ransomware. In Nordic Conference on Secure IT Systems (pp. 385-401). Springer, Cham.

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