Word.ws English Dictionary

double extortion

double extortion noun: a cybercrime tactic wherein attackers exfiltrate and encrypt sensitive data, then threaten to publish it unless the victim pays a ransom.

Noun

double extortion (uncountable)

  1. (computer security) A cybercrime tactic wherein attackers exfiltrate and encrypt sensitive data, then threaten to publish it unless the victim pays a ransom.
    • Analysis of the hacker group’s operations in recent months shows that it has pivoted away from double extortion methods due to the emergence of publicly available decryptor tools, such as those released by Avast.2023 June 29, Ross Kelly, “Encryption-less ransomware: Warning issued over emerging attack method for threat actors”, in ITPro

Questions about double extortion

What does double extortion mean?
Double extortion means a cybercrime tactic wherein attackers exfiltrate and encrypt sensitive data, then threaten to publish it unless the victim pays a ransom.
What part of speech is double extortion?
Double extortion is a noun.

Words near double extortion in the dictionary

  1. double envelopments
  2. double equals
  3. double Es
  4. double exposure
  5. double exposures
  6. double extortion
  7. double eyelid
  8. double eyelids
  9. double factorial
  10. double factorials
  11. double fault

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: double extortion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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