A novel self-organizing network solution towards crypto-ransomware mitigation

In the last decade, crypto-ransomware evolved from a family of malicious software with scarce repercussion in the research community, to a sophisticated and highly effective intrusion method positioned in the spotlight of the main organizations for cyberdefense. Its modus operandi is characterized by fetching the assets to be blocked, their encryption, and triggering an extortion process that leads the victim to pay for the key that allows their recovery. This paper reviews the evolution of crypto-ransomware focusing on the implication of the different advances in communication technologies that empowered its popularization. In addition, a novel defensive approach based on the Self-Organizing Network paradigm and the emergent communication technologies (e.g. Software-Defined Networking, Network Function Virtualization, Cloud Computing, etc.) is proposed. They enhance the orchestration of smart defensive deployments that adapt to the status of the monitoring environment and facilitate the adoption of previously defined risk management policies. In this way it is possible to efficiently coordinate the efforts of sensors and actuators distributed throughout the protected environment without supervision by human operators, resulting in greater protection with increased viability.