Ethical Hacking: Techniques, Tools, and Countermeasures, 4th Edition

Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware designed to hold the victim’s data hostage. Ransomware is placed on a victim’s computer using one or more of the same techniques that are used to install other types of malware. Once on the victim’s computer, the malware generally does one of two things: (1) sends private and personal data to the attacker or (2) encrypts large volumes of important files and data. In the first case, the attacker threatens to release the extracted data unless a ransom is paid. This type of ransomware is less common and works only in carefully chosen situations.

In the second case, the malware encrypts some or all of the user’s data. The ransomware is written in such a way that the decryption key is generated for each ...