7 ms·
"A future in which ransomware and mass data theft are so ubiquitous they’ve worked their way into our daily lives" >>> True "The singular reason why these att
by seafoam 5y ago
"A future in which ransomware and mass data theft are so ubiquitous they’ve worked their way into our daily lives"
>>> True
"The singular reason why these attacks are even possible is due entirely to rise of cryptocurrency"
>>> False
- SteveNuts 5y agoRight, it's definitely a contributing factor as to why it's profitable, but the attacks themselves could be done entirely out of malice if they wanted to.
- riccardomc 5y agoSure it can be done entirely out of malice, but it is now clear that cryptocurrencies enable the incentive of doing it for money. It is becoming more and more evident that ransomware attacks are the killer app of crypto.
- akiselev 5y ago> It is becoming more and more evident that ransomware attacks are the killer app of crypto. Illegal activities were always the killer app. I doubt bitcoin would be where it is today without the silk road sites.
- tharne 5y agoBecause there was no such thing as cyber crime prior to the invention of cryptocurrency.
- VectorLock 5y agoNot on the scale we're seeing now.
- tharne 5y agoThere are also a lot more computers and things running software now.
- candiodari 5y agoThe main cyber crime is mail-order drugs, both kinds, and it’s absolutely not new.
- CountDrewku 5y ago> but the attacks themselves could be done entirely out of malice if they wanted to But then it's not really ransomware anymore.
- splithalf 5y agoIncentives matter. Bitcoin incentivizes certain types of criminal activity. As Bitcoin grows the negative externalities will become more pronounced. I truly don’t get the ethics of it. It is killing people, literally blood money as a great new technology. Bonus points for incentivizing climate destruction and burning of fossil fuels. I don’t understand the ethics of it.
- literally_lit 5y agoWealth incentivizes that activity. Cryptocurrency is one easy way to transfer it, but it's not the "singular" reason ransomware is "possible." > literally blood money ("Blood money" is an idiom, a colloquial metaphor. So a virtual currency is "literally" a metaphor? Ugh.)
- fouric 5y agoCryptocurrency has properties that make many kinds of criminal activity far easier than most other kinds of "wealth". There's a reason that ransomware payments are now exclusively transferred through Bitcoin.
- splithalf 5y agoI am trying to say that Bitcoin has caused a change in the types of crimes that are being committed. It’s easily quantifiable. When I say it is blood money I mean that it is a way to pay for assassinations. Assassination markets are not new but Bitcoin as technology changes scale. Scale matters, regardless of what you believe.
- McDyver 5y agoReplace "Bitcoin" with "Banks", in your argument. Doesn't change anything
- xxxtentachyon 5y agoIt only works if you ignore everything in the “pro” column. Try to imagine what a world without credit would look like. It’s a much poorer world.
- LeifCarrotson 5y agoCryptocurrency does make it easier, sure. But without it we'd still have Western Union/wire transfers to overseas jurisdictions, or Paypal, or gift cards, or money mules, or any number of less-traceable ways of turning ransomware into cash.