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Not so much a "$1M payment" as the appearance of a future payment in exchange for installing malware: >that could allow the hackers to occupy the Tesla inform
by Cactus2018 6y ago
Not so much a "$1M payment" as the appearance of a future payment in exchange for installing malware:
>that could allow the hackers to occupy the Tesla information security team. ... extract corporate and network data, which would be held ransom.... For his participation in the ploy, the Gigafactory Nevada employee would receive $500,000, later raised to $1 million, to be paid in cash or bitcoin.
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>The hacker agreed to pay an advance of $11,000 to the Giga Nevada worker. Two days later, on August 21, the Tesla employee was contacted by the hacker once more, who stated that the project was being “delayed” and all payments relating to the plan would not be transferred until a later date.
- ncmncm 6y agoAgree. There was no reason to think the $1M would have been paid, and every reason to expect not. The $11k figure was a tell. Doubling from $1/2M to $1M was another. It is always easy to increase an offer that you don't plan to make good on. Reminds me of the Pascal's wager variant: "Lend me a $1000, I will give you $1M in a month. Don't trust me? Make it $100M. However small you think the probability that I will make good, just take the reciprocal and multiply that in, and that's what I promise."
- robertk 6y agoThe probability that he will make good is a function of the payback amount (interest) so this may have have no solution. Each multiplication changes the underlying probability itself and requires a recalculation so this does not work.
- ncmncm 6y agoIt does not work, regardless. The probability that he will make good starts out at exactly zero and stays there, whatever your estimate. It is a demonstration that Pascal's wager is nonsense.
- perl4ever 6y agoThe probability isn't zero though. It's very small, but it's not infinitely unlikely. I mean, what if he accidentally made 10 times the amount by luck and then had a stroke that changed his personality so he decided to pay out?
- ncmncm 6y agoNo matter how much he offers to pay back, and no matter how its reciprocal compares to the actual probability of paying it, it would still be foolish to lend the money. And that is the point.