Fredy Yesid Avila Nino

Impact of Ransomware in Latin America Since 2015 Fredy Yesid Avila Nino

Ransomware is nothing more than a malicious program (malware) designed to block access to files or in some cases to the operating system, with this the attacker manages to affect one of the three pillars of computer security, availability. Normally this type of attack blocks access through the encryption of files, whose encryption key only the attacker knows, this in turn, asks the victim for a certain amount of money (in cryptocurrency) to grant access to files again (encryption key). Although this technique is not new, the firm Kaspersky warns that: "Ransomware grew by 43% in 2018, while backdoors did so by 44%", and have managed to identify different unique strains of Ransomware. In Latin America Ransomware attacks are positioned as one of the most important threats, for this reason it is essential to know its evolution and impact since 2015, understand the concept and characteristics, identify the types of Ransomware that have appeared in the last 5 years and describe the methods of infection that are used.