  This research seeks to expose a major weakness in Crypto-ransomware by
modeling it as four integral sub-systems consisting of: An Agent, a Command and
Control Service (CNC), an anonymous payment channel (APC) and an obfuscated
command channel (OCC). We will show that most modern counter-measures focus on
either the Agent or the CNC subsystems and usually in a reactive way exposing
the target to undue risk. However, by disrupting this fourth component - the
Obfuscated Command Channel - we can proactively and safely defeat a wide
variety of crypto-ransomware.
