Mitigating Ransomware Victimisation Through the Sharing Economy

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of the ‘No More Ransom' platform on scarce resource sharing between the public and private sectors to mitigate ransomware victimisation. The chapter investigates the effectiveness of the platform with the most prominent sharing economy variables; low barrier accessibility, transaction cost, and trust-building. The chapter employs each sharing economy variable on three beneficiaries of the platform victims, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and private companies. Based on Europol documents, semi-structured elite interviews and online expert webinars, the chapter's central argument is that the ‘No More Ransom' platform provides a low barrier to entry for victims, LEAs, and private companies to access the platform. It also reduces the transaction cost for all parties sharing decryption tools. However, for more efficient resource sharing, the addition of robust trust-building mechanisms in the platform for the private sector will reduce the possible trust issues between LEAs and the private sector and motivate and encourage more private sector participation. Increasing private sector participation, as a result, will reduce the transaction cost of obtaining decryption tools by victims.