Ransomware has been part of the cyber crime ecosystem since the late 1980s and remains a major threat in the cyber landscape today. Evolving ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly more sophisticated as threat actors leverage vulnerabilities, social engineering and insider threats. While the future of ransomware is full of unknown threats, we can look to the past and recent trends to predict the future.
2005 to 2020: A rapidly changing landscape
While the first ransomware incident was observed in 1989, ransomware attacks rapidly escalated in 2005.
In 2005, the Archiveus trojan was the first ransomware to use RSA and asymmetrically encrypt all files in the “My Documents” folder.
In 2009, a virus emerged dubbed Vundo that encrypted computers and sold decryptors, allowing groups to obtain more profit.
In 2012, a new tactic emerged known as “scareware,” which contained messages claiming to be law enforcement and suggested the victim needed to pay to avoid prosecution. Scareware resulted in increased payments to threat actors.
Between 2013 and 2016, ransomware became more widespread across the globe, spreading via botnets. In addition, the first true ransomware for Mac increased the opportunity for even more victims.
In 2016, the first Ransomware-as-Service (RaaS) variants were observed. The development of RaaS eliminated the need for threat actors t ..
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