Ransomware and reputation

Anna Cartwright; Edward Cartwright

doi:10.3390/g10020026

Ransomware and reputation

Anna Cartwright
, Edward Cartwright

De Montfort University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

126 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Ransomware is a particular form of cyber-attack in which a victim loses access to either his electronic device or files unless he pays a ransom to criminals. A criminal’s ability to make money from ransomware critically depends on victims believing that the criminal will honour ransom payments. In this paper we explore the extent to which a criminal can build trust through reputation. We demonstrate that there are situations in which it is optimal for the criminal to always return the files and situations in which it is not. We argue that the ability to build reputation will depend on how victims distinguish between different ransomware strands. If ransomware is to survive as a long term revenue source for criminals then they need to find ways of building a good reputation.

Original language	English
Article number	26
Number of pages	15
Journal	Games
Volume	10
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/g10020026
Publication status	Published - 10 Jun 2019
Event	10th Conference on Decision and Game Theory for Security - Stockholm, Sweden Duration: 30 Oct 2019 → 1 Nov 2019 https://www.gamesec-conf.org/

Bibliographical note

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Funding

Funding: This research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for project EP/P011772/1 on the EconoMical, PsycHologicAl and Societal Impact of RanSomware (EMPHASIS).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Ransomware
Repeated game
Reputation
Trust

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Statistics and Probability
Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
Applied Mathematics

Access to Document

10.3390/g10020026Licence: CC BY

PublishedFinal published version, 744 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{3ee6bbf861c6421c8f48de21978ed3ef,

title = "Ransomware and reputation",

abstract = "Ransomware is a particular form of cyber-attack in which a victim loses access to either his electronic device or files unless he pays a ransom to criminals. A criminal{\textquoteright}s ability to make money from ransomware critically depends on victims believing that the criminal will honour ransom payments. In this paper we explore the extent to which a criminal can build trust through reputation. We demonstrate that there are situations in which it is optimal for the criminal to always return the files and situations in which it is not. We argue that the ability to build reputation will depend on how victims distinguish between different ransomware strands. If ransomware is to survive as a long term revenue source for criminals then they need to find ways of building a good reputation.",

keywords = "Ransomware, Repeated game, Reputation, Trust",

author = "Anna Cartwright and Edward Cartwright",

note = "This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).; 10th Conference on Decision and Game Theory for Security , GameSec 2019 ; Conference date: 30-10-2019 Through 01-11-2019",

year = "2019",

month = jun,

day = "10",

doi = "10.3390/g10020026",

language = "English",

volume = "10",

journal = "Games",

issn = "2073-4336",

publisher = "MDPI",

number = "2",

url = "https://www.gamesec-conf.org/",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ransomware and reputation

AU - Cartwright, Anna

AU - Cartwright, Edward

N1 - This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

PY - 2019/6/10

Y1 - 2019/6/10

N2 - Ransomware is a particular form of cyber-attack in which a victim loses access to either his electronic device or files unless he pays a ransom to criminals. A criminal’s ability to make money from ransomware critically depends on victims believing that the criminal will honour ransom payments. In this paper we explore the extent to which a criminal can build trust through reputation. We demonstrate that there are situations in which it is optimal for the criminal to always return the files and situations in which it is not. We argue that the ability to build reputation will depend on how victims distinguish between different ransomware strands. If ransomware is to survive as a long term revenue source for criminals then they need to find ways of building a good reputation.

AB - Ransomware is a particular form of cyber-attack in which a victim loses access to either his electronic device or files unless he pays a ransom to criminals. A criminal’s ability to make money from ransomware critically depends on victims believing that the criminal will honour ransom payments. In this paper we explore the extent to which a criminal can build trust through reputation. We demonstrate that there are situations in which it is optimal for the criminal to always return the files and situations in which it is not. We argue that the ability to build reputation will depend on how victims distinguish between different ransomware strands. If ransomware is to survive as a long term revenue source for criminals then they need to find ways of building a good reputation.

KW - Ransomware

KW - Repeated game

KW - Reputation

KW - Trust

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85070518565

U2 - 10.3390/g10020026

DO - 10.3390/g10020026

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85070518565

SN - 2073-4336

VL - 10

JO - Games

JF - Games

IS - 2

M1 - 26

T2 - 10th Conference on Decision and Game Theory for Security

Y2 - 30 October 2019 through 1 November 2019

ER -

Ransomware and reputation

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this