the.com/ransomware
A digital kidnapper that abducts your files and demands payment in untraceable money.
means Malicious software that encrypts your data, then extorts you for a key to unlock it.
from A 1989 fusion of ransom (Old French raençon, a price for release) and software, perfectly describing code that holds your own bytes hostage.
First strikeThe 1989 AIDS Trojan demanded payment by postal mail.
Currency of choiceBitcoin made anonymous extortion frighteningly scalable.
Paying rarely worksMany victims pay and still never recover files.