4 ms·

Maybe there should be a law that if you pay a ransom, you are required to pay the same amount as a fine. Because paying these ransoms is funding the criminals..

Maybe there should be a law that if you pay a ransom, you are required to pay the same amount as a fine. Because paying these ransoms is funding the criminals.... how about you have to also fund law enforcement to combat those criminals? (also, this should reduce the amount that actually goes to the bad guys, since the amount of ransom would have greater downward pressure, i.e. if they'd probably not be able to collect more than $0.57M because that would cost UCSF $1.14M)

ukulele 6y ago
This would make the payers far less likely to report it, and ultimately make it much harder to track
- robbrown451 6y ago
  Well if it was illegal to not report it, they'd be putting themselves at a lot of risk. I can't see a university or corporation making a large payment like that illegally. Also, it may not make the costs to them more. Remember the amount of ransom is based on what the ransomers think the ransomees are willing to pay. Today, the reason it was 1.4 million instead of 2.8 million, is that they didn't think UCSF would pay the latter amount. So if they knew UCSF would have to pay double the amount of the ransom, they'd have to only ask for half as much.
tenuousemphasis 6y ago
Or since we already have to pay for law enforcement anyway, they could just do their jobs and catch the bad guys. But I think we all know at this point that "catching bad guys" is just a pretense, right?
- robbrown451 6y ago
  Not sure what you are saying. We already pay for law enforcement, but their resources aren't infinite. This would serve three purposes: help fund those things that are costly, deter the bad guys (since they can't ask for as much money if paying a ransom is going to be twice as costly to their victims), as well as to add additional incentivize people to secure their systems. I don't know what you mean by ""catching bad guys" is just a pretense". Pretense for what? By who? That sounds very conspiracy minded.
trimbo 6y ago
> you are required to pay the same amount as a fine Pay a fine to whom? UCSF is a state institution. Many of the other recent examples are cities, counties, and so on.

ukulele 6y ago

This would make the payers far less likely to report it, and ultimately make it much harder to track

robbrown451 6y ago
Well if it was illegal to not report it, they'd be putting themselves at a lot of risk. I can't see a university or corporation making a large payment like that illegally. Also, it may not make the costs to them more. Remember the amount of ransom is based on what the ransomers think the ransomees are willing to pay. Today, the reason it was 1.4 million instead of 2.8 million, is that they didn't think UCSF would pay the latter amount. So if they knew UCSF would have to pay double the amount of the ransom, they'd have to only ask for half as much.

tenuousemphasis 6y ago

Or since we already have to pay for law enforcement anyway, they could just do their jobs and catch the bad guys. But I think we all know at this point that "catching bad guys" is just a pretense, right?

robbrown451 6y ago
Not sure what you are saying. We already pay for law enforcement, but their resources aren't infinite. This would serve three purposes: help fund those things that are costly, deter the bad guys (since they can't ask for as much money if paying a ransom is going to be twice as costly to their victims), as well as to add additional incentivize people to secure their systems. I don't know what you mean by ""catching bad guys" is just a pretense". Pretense for what? By who? That sounds very conspiracy minded.

trimbo 6y ago

> you are required to pay the same amount as a fine Pay a fine to whom? UCSF is a state institution. Many of the other recent examples are cities, counties, and so on.