That actually would probably work... especially if the vigilantes masqueraded as the “genuine” hackers convincingly. Then you (or the companies covered in TFA)

That actually would probably work... especially if the vigilantes masqueraded as the “genuine” hackers convincingly. Then you (or the companies covered in TFA) would just have no way of knowing whether there is any chance of recovering the data for real. As the probability of recovery goes down, the likelihood of being willing to pay the ransom also goes down. Though in a way this feels a bit like going around _actually shooting_ people in order to “poison the well” for a group that goes around _threatening to shoot_ people, but not actually shooting them if they pay up.