The evolution of cybercrime: How ransomware became the weapon of choice
Ransomware's rise: from low-tech scams to organized crime
· TechRadarNews By Sergio A. Figueroa published 23 October 2024
In the long history of computer crime, the players, goals and tactics have seen a lot of change.
Early computers were fairly isolated systems reserved for niche applications, mainly in academic environments. The first instances of security "attacks" were examples of tinkering that went too far rather than malicious activity.
Today’s world is different. Computers power many aspects of our day-to-day lives. They are faster than ever and highly inter-connected. They are in our pockets, homes and offices, but also in our toothbrushes and refrigerators. They even power our critical infrastructure. This now widespread reliance on computers (and the data they process) attracts new kinds of malfeasants.
Over time, computer-based crime has become organized. What started as low-tech cons and scams, or clever technical feats by small groups has been gradually replaced by more professionalized, more damaging, and more hurtful collectives, such as state-sponsored groups. There is one sort of attack that illustrates this transition better than most: ransomware.
Sergio A. Figueroa
Senior Security Consultant at Black Duck Software (formerly the Synopsys Software Integrity Group).
The simple effectiveness of ransomware
Ransomware is an extremely lucrative example of computer crime going "corporate": incentivized by the will of making more money by investing less effort.
Most ransomware attacks follow a simple pattern:
1. They start by running a malicious tool, an encryptor, on the target system. True to its name, the encryptor will then encrypt the whole disk (or disks) and delete the key. If the perpetrators intend to make the data recoverable, they will keep a copy of the key on their files, away from the affected system.
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