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They should indeed be required to report such incidents. But banning the paying of ransoms is also foolhardy, I think, even though the US has now officially dec
by meowface 5y ago
They should indeed be required to report such incidents. But banning the paying of ransoms is also foolhardy, I think, even though the US has now officially declared that paying ransoms is illegal.
They're hoping to game-theoretically reduce ransomware attacks with this policy, but I'm not sure if it'll work. (It might be working to an extent, though, because in the interview I reference in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27097061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27097061, the ransomware operator says he's concerned about this policy.)
- anigbrowl 5y agoI think the prohibition is on facilitating payment of the ransom (eg to a previously sanctioned individual or organization). So what we could see is a situation where Alice kidnaps Bob and tells Carol to pay a ransom; Carol attempts to do so but when she goes to withdraw money from her bank account Dave, her banker, puts a hold on the transaction or even freezes her account if the fact of Bob's kidnapping is widely known. Bob doesn't make it but Eve, Frank, and Gary tell Carol that his life is a small price to pay for standing up to Alice's terrorism.