Trends in Mobile Ransomware and Incident Response from a Digital Forensics Perspective

Abstract

Recently, the number of mobile ransomware types has increased. Moreover, the number of cases of damage caused by mobile ransomware is increasing. Representative damage cases include encrypting files on the victim's smart device or making them unusable, causing financial losses to the victim. This study classifies ransomware apps by analyzing several representative ransomware apps to identify trends in the malicious behavior of ransomware. We present a technique for recovering from the damage, from a digital forensic perspective, using reverse engineering ransomware apps to analyze vulnerabilities in malicious functions applied with various cryptographic technologies. Our study found that ransomware applications are largely divided into three types: locker, crypto, and hybrid. In addition, we presented a method for recovering the damage caused by each type of ransomware app using an actual case. This study is expected to help minimize the damage caused by ransomware apps and respond to new ransomware apps