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Though the two terms are often confused, there is a difference between ransomware and cyber extortion. Nonetheless, the pair are linked—and one can lead to the other.
What Is Ransomware?
Ransomware is simply malicious software(malware) that locks the victim out of their device or data until a ransom is paid. The hacker encrypts your information, rendering it unreadable without the correct decryption key, e.g., a password.
Ransomware often targets companies where being unable to access data can lead to losing customers and confidence in the brand. The amount of information held by businesses, too, is more considerable than any held by members of the general public. That’s one reason medical institutions, for instance, are so susceptible to this form of attack: the amount of private data, even justPersonally Identifiable Information (PII), held by such a place is particularly considerable.
Still, no one is safe from ransomware, so this malware can infect individuals as well.
What Is Cyber Extortion?
Cyber extortion is the act of holding sensitive data to ransom. Yes, it sounds a lot like ransomware, but that’s because ransomware is often involved in cyber extortion and exploitation.
That’s not always the case, however.
Cyber extortion can involve blackmail through other methods, so your whole network doesn’t have to be encrypted. Instead, anyone with private information or photos that you don’t want being spread to third parties can hold you to ransom.
Sextortion is a prime example of this: it involves a scammer keeping adult images, messages, and/or videos of a person so they can use them as leverage to get what they want.
Any ransomware holds data for ransom. To gain access again, there will be a degree of extortion. There’s a clear line to be drawn between being infected with ransomware and being a victim of cyber extortion.
Cyber extortion doesn’t have to involve money either: someone can hold you to ransom in order to gain more data about you,to get you to spread the ransomware itselfor a virus or phishing message, to get more photos of you (potentially NSFW pictures or videos), or any other form of blackmail.
So, can cyber extortion also lead to ransomware? Yes, any means of extortion could lead to further infection by malware like ransomware. Just because you give in to a hacker’s demands doesn’t mean that they’ll play just as nicely. In fact, it couldlead to double extortion ransomware.
Ransomware vs. Cyber Extortion: Differences and Similarities
Whereas ransomware is the actual software used, cyber extortion is the act of a party to make money from that malicious software.
Ransomware locks a system, but cyber extortion can apply to many different circumstances. It’s anything digital that’s used against you, including phishing emails and messages, scams like romance fraud, andDistributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.
Of course, many different types of ransomware can affect you, and some forms of cyber extortion, like phishing, can involve ransomware.
Nonetheless, the aim of ransomware and cyber extortion is the same: to blackmail victims into taking action.
This largely depends on how you define extortion. In a general sense, cyber extortion is when one party manipulates another to get what they want. In that case, yes, ransomware is a form of extortion.
However, if you equate extortion with money or obtaining something (whether physical or not—cryptocurrency being a good example of non-physical finances), then not all ransomware leads to that form of extortion. It can lead to other forms of blackmail aside from a pay-off.
Cyber extortion, though, involves leveraging a victim into doing something the scammer or hacker wants them to do. Ransomware fits this definition to a tee.
