I feel the simplest solution is for a country to make it illegal to pay for ransomware with significant fines/jail. Something like that must stop said country

I feel the simplest solution is for a country to make it illegal to pay for ransomware with significant fines/jail. Something like that must stop said country being a target in the first place. I think its more strange it isn't illegal as paying is effectively supporting and funding ongoing criminal behaviour. Maybe there needs to be a exception rule on direct government approval for edge cases where information is critical to be retrieved for the wider economy.