The BitcoinHeist: Classifications of Ransomware Crime Families

Linguistic spatial classifications of event domains in narratives of crime

Structurally, formal definitions of the linguistic narrative minimally require two temporally linked past-time events. The role of space in this definition, based on spatial language indicating where events occur, is considered optional and non-structural. However, based on narratives with a high frequency of spatial language, recent research has questioned this perspective, suggesting that spa...

The Current State of Ransomware

On the Economics of Ransomware

While recognized as a theoretical and practical concept for over 20 years, only now ransomware has taken centerstage as one of the most prevalent cybercrimes. Various reports demonstrate the enormous burden placed on companies, which have to grapple with the ongoing attack waves. At the same time, our strategic understanding of the threat and the adversarial interaction between organizations an...

Extinguishing Ransomware - A Hybrid Approach to Android Ransomware Detection

Mobile ransomware is on the rise and effective defense from it is of utmost importance to guarantee security of mobile users’ data. Current solutions provided by antimalware vendors are signature-based and thus ineffective in removing ransomware and restoring the infected devices and files. Also, current state-of-the art literature offers very few solutions to effectively detecting and blocking...

RAPTOR: Ransomware Attack PredicTOR

Ransomware, a type of malicious software that encrypts a victim’s files and only releases the cryptographic key once a ransom is paid, has emerged as a potentially devastating class of cybercrimes in the past few years. In this paper, we present RAPTOR, a promising line of defense against ransomware attacks. RAPTOR fingerprints attackers’ operations to forecast ransomware activity. More specifi...