This attack highlighted the potential damage and risks of ransomware. Ransomware has attacked organizations in nearly every vertical, with one of the most famous viruses being the attacks on Presbyterian Memorial Hospital. Beyond Bitcoin, there are other popular cryptocurrencies that attackers prompt victims to use, such as Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that uses encryption techniques to verify and secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Ransomware attacks began to soar in popularity with the growth of cyptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. For example, notorious mobile ransomware Fusob requires victims to pay using Apple iTunes gift cards instead of normal currencies, like dollars.

The malware then prompted the victim to send asymmetric ciphertext to the attacker to decipher and return the decryption key-for a fee.Īttackers have grown creative over the years by requiring payments that are nearly impossible to trace, which helps cybercriminals remain anonymous. Their virus contained the attacker’s public key and encrypted the victim’s files. Young and Yung presented the first cryptovirology attack at the 1996 IEEE Security and Privacy conference. This idea, born in academia, illustrated the progression, strength, and creation of modern cryptographic tools. In 1996, ransomware was known as “cryptoviral extortion,” introduced by Moti Yung and Adam Young from Columbia University. Payments for that attack were made by mail to Panama, at which point a decryption key was also mailed back to the user. Ransomware can be traced back to 1989 when the “AIDS virus” was used to extort funds from recipients of the ransomware.

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