Cerber is a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) that appeared in 2016, spread quickly and has been evolving since. It became well-known for its file encryption, offline capabilities, and sophisticated evasion techniques. It primarily targets enterprises, financial institutions, and government entities, encrypting their data and demanding ransom payments in Bitcoin. It also targets everyday users encrypting personal files (photos, documents) with the risk of their permanent loss.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that locks users out of their system or data using different methods to force them to pay a ransom. Most often, such programs encrypt files on an infected machine and demand a fee to be paid in exchange for the decryption key. Additionally, such programs can be used to steal sensitive information from the compromised computer and even conduct DDoS attacks against affected organizations to pressure them into paying.

Trojans are a group of malicious programs distinguished by their ability to masquerade as benign software. Depending on their type, trojans possess a variety of capabilities, ranging from maintaining full remote control over the victim’s machine to stealing data and files, as well as dropping other malware. At the same time, the main functionality of each trojan family can differ significantly depending on its type. The most common trojan infection chain starts with a phishing email.