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If a robber steals one grain of rice from each person in a town, was anyone harmed? If you think not, then what if a thousand robbers do the same? Leeching off
by CleverLikeAnOx 5y ago
If a robber steals one grain of rice from each person in a town, was anyone harmed? If you think not, then what if a thousand robbers do the same?
Leeching off of companies is kind of like stealing a grain of rice from everyone. The company's costs increase and the price eventually makes its way back to the consumer.
Another way to think about it is the total amount of labor needed for the world to operate as it does. In a world that has no ransomware, the labor needed is X. In a world with ransomware it is X + cost of building ransomware + cost of dealing with ransomware.
- CharlesW 5y ago> Leeching off of companies is kind of like stealing a grain of rice from everyone. I'm sure the criminals console themselves by thinking about it that way, but as someone who had to use an emergency room and was denied other services during the month+ Scripps was down (during a global pandemic, no less), it was easy to see how ransomware attacks can directly hurt an enormous number of employees and customers.
- CleverLikeAnOx 5y agoTo clarify my point, even if leeching off companies is like stealing a grain of rice from each person, it is still wrong. My point was that ransomware is wrong even in an idealized abstract scenario where it only targets non-critical companies. Thanks for providing your experience. It drive home that in practice it is much more like beating and robbing many people than it is like stealing just a single grain of rice from them.