Cybersecurity researchers spotlight a new ransomware threat – be careful where you upload files
This research was completed in 2023 and received partial funding from US National Science Foundation, Cyber Florida, and Google ASPIRE. The views expressed are those of the author only, not of the funding agencies. The author also thanks the developers of the FSA API at Google for their support and cooperation for the original USENIX Security paper in 2023.
You probably know better than to click on links that download unknown files onto your computer. It turns out that uploading files can get you into trouble, too.
Today’s web browsers are much more powerful than earlier generations of browsers. They’re able to manipulate data within both the browser and the computer’s local file system. Users can send and receive email, listen to music or watch a movie within a browser with the click of a button.
Unfortunately, these capabilities also mean that hackers can find clever ways to abuse the browsers to trick you into letting ransomware lock up your files when you think that you’re simply doing your usual tasks online.
