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Security Operations · Foundational

Ransomware

Malware that encrypts or locks a victim's data or systems and demands payment for restoration.

Definition

Modern ransomware typically follows hands-on-keyboard intrusion, privilege escalation and backup destruction before encryption, and often adds data theft for extortion. Recovery relies on offline or immutable backups and a tested incident response plan. Paying does not guarantee recovery and may raise legal sanctions concerns.

Example

A ransom note demanding Bitcoin after file shares are encrypted with a .lockbit extension.

Exam tip

Best defense answers are offline/immutable backups plus tested restores; paying the ransom is never the "best" answer.

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