This project can be completed individually or with a partner. In some cases, I might allow teams of more than 2, but any teams of 3 or more will have progressively higher expectations.

Your project will be focused on ransomware, and the project must consist of original work. The "standard" project will consist of the following:

• You develope ransomware, which must encrypt a specific file in the local directory, so that it is inaccessible to the user, but can be decrypted once you provide the key. All cryptography must be secure, and implemented correctly.
• Your ransomware can be a trojan, or other more advanced type of malware.
• You need to produce at least 5 distinct obfuscated copies of your ransomware, all of which perform essentially the same, but which are sufficiently different so as to avoid signature detection. In principle, the obfuscation techniques you employ should be able to produce an unlimited number of copies, but you are only required to actually generate 5.

You must inform me of your project topic (and partner, if you plan to have one) by Monday, April 4. You need to provide a brief (a couple of paragraphs should suffice) proposal, summarizing what you plan to do.

If you have a different ("nonstandard") project topic that you would prefer to work on, let me know and we'll see if it will work. I'm willing to consider other ransomware-related topics.

Feel free to discuss any project ideas with me.

A written report and an oral report are both required, and both are due Tuesday, May 10. We will begin in-class presentations on the due date.