Cryptovirology

Cryptovirology is a field that studies how to use cryptography to design powerful malicious software. It encompasses overt attacks such as cryptoviral extortion where a cryptovirus, cryptoworm, or cryptotrojan hybrid encrypts the victim's files and the user must pay the malware author to receive the needed session key (that is encrypted under the author's public key that is contained in the malware). The field also encompasses covert attacks in which the attacker secretly steals private information such as private keys. An example of the latter type of attack are asymmetric backdoors. An asymmetric backdoor is a backdoor (e.g., in a cryptosystem) that can only be used by the attacker even after it is found. There are many other attacks in the field that are not mentioned here.