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The fear of losing money is a real one. On the other hand, I believe that the word terrorism and the characterization of acts as terrorists should not be taken

The fear of losing money is a real one. On the other hand, I believe that the word terrorism and the characterization of acts as terrorists should not be taken too lightly as it can lead to misuse of power rather quickly.

Thorrez 6y ago
Fear of losing money if you pay the ransom or if you don't pay the ransom? They certainly don't want to make you fear paying the ransom, because that would mean you won't pay and they wouldn't profit. Fear of losing money if you don't pay the ransom: yes. But this could sort of apply to many salespeople, marketers, negotiators. They want to make it sound very good to take the deal and very bad (yes, maybe scary) to not take the deal. The way the fear is targeted between ransomware and terrorism is also quite different. Terrorism wants the general public to be scared. Ransomware doesn't want the general public to be scared, because that would lead to people patching their systems, reducing future profit opportunities.
bonestamp2 6y ago
I wouldn't want to use the word lightly either, but if Russia is trying to destabilize our economy, for their own political gain, and they inadvertently threaten or kill many people in the process (by shutting down hospital information systems)... that is the textbook definition of terrorism.
- red_admiral 6y ago
  When it's done by a nation-state, we used to call that "war".
- curryst 6y ago
  Oh good, were all part of rogue terrorist nations then. Shall we talk about Vietnam or Korea? Or how about the use of "Strategic Bombing" in WWII, which was specifically designed to crumble cities by terrifying their citizens into leaving. That's not even to mention the use of nuclear weapons, which under this definition would probably make the US the worst terrorist organization in the world. Perhaps an even closer corollary would be our embargo of Cuba, which effectively cut them off from having viable trading routes. We did it to destabilize their economy, so they would get rid of Communism because we don't like Communists. How many people have died of starvation because we're artificially dampening their economy?

Thorrez 6y ago

Fear of losing money if you pay the ransom or if you don't pay the ransom? They certainly don't want to make you fear paying the ransom, because that would mean you won't pay and they wouldn't profit. Fear of losing money if you don't pay the ransom: yes. But this could sort of apply to many salespeople, marketers, negotiators. They want to make it sound very good to take the deal and very bad (yes, maybe scary) to not take the deal. The way the fear is targeted between ransomware and terrorism is also quite different. Terrorism wants the general public to be scared. Ransomware doesn't want the general public to be scared, because that would lead to people patching their systems, reducing future profit opportunities.

bonestamp2 6y ago

I wouldn't want to use the word lightly either, but if Russia is trying to destabilize our economy, for their own political gain, and they inadvertently threaten or kill many people in the process (by shutting down hospital information systems)... that is the textbook definition of terrorism.

red_admiral 6y ago
When it's done by a nation-state, we used to call that "war".
curryst 6y ago
Oh good, were all part of rogue terrorist nations then. Shall we talk about Vietnam or Korea? Or how about the use of "Strategic Bombing" in WWII, which was specifically designed to crumble cities by terrifying their citizens into leaving. That's not even to mention the use of nuclear weapons, which under this definition would probably make the US the worst terrorist organization in the world. Perhaps an even closer corollary would be our embargo of Cuba, which effectively cut them off from having viable trading routes. We did it to destabilize their economy, so they would get rid of Communism because we don't like Communists. How many people have died of starvation because we're artificially dampening their economy?