The Ransomware Economy: From Malware to Marketplaces

The presentation outlines the fundamental shift of ransomware from a simple privacy crisis to a critical business continuity crisis. It details the "Extortion Escalation Ladder," explaining how attackers have moved beyond simple file encryption (Wave 1) and data theft (Wave 2) to Operational Sabotage (Wave 3), where systems are deliberately destroyed to force prolonged downtime.

The talk highlights the industrialization of cybercrime through Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) and the "Underground AI Stack," where weaponized generative AI is used to automate and accelerate every stage of an attack—from reconnaissance to custom financial "profit plans" for extortion. Finally, it provides a strategic framework for modern defense, focusing on adaptive AI-driven security stacks, resilient recovery, and specialized cloud defense protocols

Date: Aug 18, 2026

Where: University of North Georgia