Information Literacy for Cybersecurity
Final Project Paper
Why is ransomware becoming an increasing threat in the cyber world? Why have cases on ransomware attacks been increasing over the recent years? Ransomware is “the malicious intent of an individual or individuals that use a form of black mail on a victim to force them to pay amounts of money to regain access to their data, device, or system”. It’s like encrypting the victim’s data and making them pay or give up something valuable of theirs to get their data back These ransomware attacks have different ways of infecting a device, through email, waterhole attacks, Trojans, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, social engineering, and exploit kits. Using my research strategies, I will go in depth with what ransomware is, what ransomware does to computer systems, and who it affects and who groups, or organizations ransomware can harm. I will use two of the information literacy frames to help explain what is real and what is not real in this concern with ransomware becoming an increasing threat in the cyber world.
The first frame I will be using to help explain this concern is “Information has Value”. The reasoning behind Information being valuable is that it “possesses several dimensions of value, including as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world”. This frame from the Information literacy frames connects to the concern with ransomware because these ransomware attacks for capturing and encrypting an individual’s data in exchange for something that individual with the malicious intent finds valuable. This relating to the concept that information has value. If the information the hacker took or encrypted was not important or to them or valuable to the victim then then, number 1, the victim would not care to get it back, and 2, the hacker would not get what they want by trying to blackmail the victim.
Ransomware is not joking matter or something to take lightly. There is hype around this concern for a reason and these new articles and case studies are not exaggerating anything. A research study states that since 2013, “ransomware has had a rapid year on year growth of new families, costing an estimated more than $5 billion USD globally and growing over an expected rate of 350% in 2017”. This explains how much a ransomware attack could cost an individual let alone a major company or organization. Imagine if Apple, Google, Tesla, or Amazon got hit with a ransomware attack and where being blackmailed by hackers holding and encrypting their sensitive and valuable information and data. It would cost them millions, maybe even billions of dollars. Some knowledge practices one could use to prevent a ransomware attack can be to recognize issues of access or lack of access to information sources and decide where and how information in published.
The second frame I chose from the information literacy framework is “Authority is Constructed and Contextual”. This frame states “information resources reflect their creators’ expertise and credibility and are evaluated based on the information need and the context in which the information will be used. Authority is constructed in that various communities may recognize different types of authority. It is contextual in that the information need may help to determine the level of authority required”. To paraphrase and explain this framework more, authority can be the access to certain information that not everyone may be able to access or as stated in the literacy of framework “an attitude of informed skepticism and an openness to new perspectives, additional voices, and changed in school of thought”.
Using this frame from the information literacy frameworks and applying it to the concern with ransomware becoming an increasing threat to the cyber world, people should learn more about authority and why it is constructed and why it is contextual. Doing so will allow for more credibility of sources. One of the common ransomware attacks is via email. If a person knows what to look for in emails and determine if it is informally or formally written and authenticate that it is legit, it can save them from interacting with a potential email with malicious intent behind it. As technology gets more advanced people need to learn more about these new additions to technology and the risks that come with it. With new technology hackers also find new ways to input malicious code and other ways to encrypt or steal information and come up with new forms of ransomware. With ransomware being a profit-driven business, one of the most common techniques a cybercriminal will get the victim to pay using gift vouchers, payment services (PayPal), prepaid services and digital currency (Bitcoin).
To conclude this paper, the concern about ransomware becoming an increasing threat in the cyber world is not being overblown or overhyped. Ransomware is not a problem or issue to take lightly because it affects anyone including individuals, organizations, businesses, and companies costing them thousands, millions, and even billions of dollars to repair or get back on their feet. With this concern the thing that is being understood well is that ransomware is becoming an increasing issue as it has over the recent years, but what us not being understood fully is that ransomware is very dangerous and malicious code and be very harmful if the hack knows what they are doing. As people would learn more about ransomware and malicious code it would be understood fully.
The two frames I chose from the information literacy framework work well with this concern as they both identify problems that are associated with ransomware and provide key practices for those frames that could be associated into the concern of ransomware to prevent attacks and make individuals more aware of their data. “Information has Value” shows why criminals use blackmailing tactics and getting a hold of data and information because it is valuable and hoping the individual will give something up to regain access to it. “Authority is Constructed and Contextual” shows how people should understand the access and authority required for data, even if it is their own.
“Cryptolocker ransomware” by Christiaan Colen is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0.
Works Cited
Hull, Gavin, Henna John, and Budi Arief. “Ransomware Deployment Methods and Analysis: Views from a Predictive Model and Human Responses.” Crime Science 8.1 (2019): 1-22. Web.
O’Kane, Philip, Sakir Sezer, and Domhnall Carlin. “Evolution of Ransomware.” IET Networks 7.5 (2018): 321-27. Web.
“Cryptolocker ransomware” by Christiaan Colen is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse