Our collective use of and dependence on technology has come quite a long way since 1989. That year, the first documented ransomware attack — the AIDS Trojan — was spread via physical media (5 1⁄4" floppy disks) delivered by the postal service to individuals subscribed to a mailing list. The malware encrypted filenames (not the contents) and demanded payment ($189 USD) to be sent to a post office box to gain access to codes that would unscramble the directory entries.
That initial ransomware attack — started by an emotionally disturbed AIDS researcher — gave rise to a business model that has evolved since then to become one of the most lucrative and increasingly disruptive cybercriminal enterprises in modern history.
In this post, we'll:
Examine what has enabled this growthSee how tactics and targets have morphed over the yearsTake a hard look at the societal impacts of more recent campaignsPaint an unfortunately bleak picture of where these attacks may be headed if we cannot work together to curtail themBuilding the infrastructure of our own demise: Ransomware's growth enablers
As PCs entered homes and businesses, individuals and organizations increasingly relied on technology for everything from storing albums of family pictures to handling legitimate business processes of all shapes and sizes. They were also becoming progressively more connected to the internet — a domain formerly dominated by academics and researchers. Electronic mail (now email) morphed from a quirky, niche tool to a ubiquitous medium, connecting folks across the globe. The World Wide Web shifted from being a medium solely used for information exchange to the digital home of corporations and a cadre of storefronts.
The capacity and capabilities of cyberspace g ..
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