Ransomware 3.0—A Weapon for Next-Generation Information Warfare

Ransomware 3.0 is an emerging threat where cyber criminals target critical infrastructures and tamper with the data stored on computing devices. Unlike the traditional ransomware and ransomware 2.0 attacks, cyber criminals are more interested in the data stored on the victims’ devices. The business value of these data from critical enterprises such as government, healthcare, education, defense, and utility providers is priceless. Sophisticated state-based cyber actors are more interested in disrupting critical infrastructures than financial benefits via cryptocurrency. In addition, such sophisticated cyber actors are also looking for trade secrets and inclined toward gathering confidential information (intelligence). Acting on the misinformation caused by the ransomware attacks will severely affect any critical infrastructure and can play the role of primary weapon in any information warfare in toady’s age. In this paper, the underlying mechanism of ransomware 3.0 is showcased and a potential solution based on the combination of mobility Markov chain and differential privacy is proposed. To the best of our knowledge, there is no academic paper related to ransomware 3.0 and the corresponding solution. Experimental results suggest that the combination of mobility Markov chain and differential privacy has the potential and further research is necessary to develop more robust countermeasures against ransomware 3.0.