F-Secure recently evaluated Ransomware based on user (victim) experience factors to find a winner. I found it to be like rating an ugliest dog contest.
Criteria included interface appeal, usability, language support and other factors you might attribute to using regular software. But ransomware is not software anyone wants to use. It is malware, intent on extorting money from unsuspecting victims. For their victims, a terrible interface to navigate is adding insult to injury. No matter how much polish or features are added the overall experience will still be miserable.
As for the ratings, I am not sure if there is a winner, but it is interesting to read the analysis. Only a handful of the over 140 different known variants were tested. If you are interested in seeing a good list, visit the ID Ransomware site. As it turns out, ransomware interfaces and experiences are currently still crude albeit effective. We can only expect them to get better over time, to make it easier for victims to pay in a timely manner.
In the end, we all are the potential losers as ransomware is growing quickly and fleecing victims worldwide for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Thanks to F-Secure for their insights and an entertaining read! You can download their paper here: https://fsecureconsumer.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/customer_journey_of_crypto-ransomware_f-secure.pdf
Interested in more? Follow me on Twitter (@Matt_Rosenquist) and LinkedIn to hear insights and what is going on in cybersecurity.
That dog is as ugly as ransomware!