| It has been over 25 years since the first reported case of Ransomware, not so affectionately titled the "AIDS" Trojan. Ransomware is a particular type of malware designed to hold hostage the information and systems of individuals and companies through "good old-fashioned" scare tactics and the use of advanced encryption methodologies. Even with significant advances in technology-based security measures, the overall success of protecting information and systems resources from this threat has unnecessarily been ineffective. The successful execution of ransomware on both large organizations and critical infrastructure assets ensures its continued attention. Most of the focus before 2016 has been on how to "technically" protect users, companies, and systems. For contextual elucidation, some technical review of ransomware is included. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the past and future success of ransomware answering the following questions: Why does the execution of ransomware have a high success rate given the advances in protective technologies? What is the fundamental relationship between ransomware creators and their victims? What can be done to lessen the financial and business continuity impact of ransomware? Many information technology leaders, security companies, law enforcement organizations, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation acknowledge that the issue of ransomware is growing. Steps to protect consumers and systems by technology companies will only work if people are not ignorant of, or worse, apathetic about the real dangers of ransomware. Individuals and organizational leaders have a responsibility to be cognizant of the threats and risks ransomware carries, and to adhere to security best practices. Keywords: Cybersecurity, Professor Cynthia Gonnella, cybercrime, ransom, criminals, information assurance. |
