Game Theoretic Analysis of Ransomware: A Preliminary Study

Rudra Baksi, Shambhu Upadhyaya

2022

Abstract

Ransomware attacks have been frequent and wreaking havoc of the kind never seen before. This paper presents an analysis of a basic type of ransomware. When faced with a ransomware attack, the victim needs to address a question whether to pay or not to pay the ransom. In this regard, we develop a game-theoretic model to analyze the attack landscape and to determine under what conditions the defender is in a position of advantage to successfully neutralize the attack. In this preliminary analysis, we develop strategies which would help the victim to make an informed decision. We put forward two parameters that help the defender make an informed decision in the face of an attack. We perform a sensitivity analysis to show how the variation of the parameters affect the outcomes of the attacker and the defender and thereby affecting the equilibrium strategies. We then discuss how the outcome of the model can help defenders to come up with an effective defense mechanism against similar future attacks.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Baksi R. and Upadhyaya S. (2022). Game Theoretic Analysis of Ransomware: A Preliminary Study. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP, ISBN 978-989-758-553-1, pages 242-251. DOI: 10.5220/0011006600003120

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icissp22,
author={Rudra Baksi and Shambhu Upadhyaya},
title={Game Theoretic Analysis of Ransomware: A Preliminary Study},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP,},
year={2022},
pages={242-251},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0011006600003120},
isbn={978-989-758-553-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP,
TI - Game Theoretic Analysis of Ransomware: A Preliminary Study
SN - 978-989-758-553-1
AU - Baksi R.
AU - Upadhyaya S.
PY - 2022
SP - 242
EP - 251
DO - 10.5220/0011006600003120