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Abstract

The ransomware cyberattack has been steadily increasing in global notoriety, spiralling most recently into a cyber beast which has detrimentally impacted governments and organisations worldwide. This manipulative yet lucrative method has gained traction while exploiting globalisation and the ever-growing, technologically inter-connected, world. It is therefore important we understand this evolution to date, to confidently assert what the future holds for ransomware and the potential devastation it may cause.
This research, through analysis of cybersecurity and information security literature from scholarly, governmental and media sources, comprehensively defines ransomware as a method of attack. It analyses its components and features, and then scrutinises the wider context and environments surrounding it, to further understand what has helped to fuel its development since its inception in 1989. By then exploring what has been introduced to address the problem, it then seeks to posit what the future holds for ransomware and organisational structures it consumes.
Findings suggest that cyber security and law enforcement agencies are beginning to create speed bumps in the path of ransomware adversaries, however its trajectory over time has gathered such considerable momentum, while simultaneously broadening its spheres of both influence and recruitment, that no permanent solution is likely to be viable. It is therefore inevitable that ransomware attacks will continue to evolve & mutate into the foreseeable future, maintaining the potential to detrimentally impact nation states, political standings and ultimately, human life.

Course: Risk and Security Management - BSc (Hons) - C1565

Date Deposited: 2022-09-21

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14020.html