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I hope this is a sign of things to come. Train robberies and privateering were common because the culprits were rarely caught. I feel ransomware has been so suc
by rich_sasha 5y ago
I hope this is a sign of things to come. Train robberies and privateering were common because the culprits were rarely caught. I feel ransomware has been so successful because it operated in an environment where you never get caught.
The solution is always the same, step up the enforcement.
- Moosdijk 5y agoWhen a lot of culprits are state actors, stepping up enforcement is a naive and useless endeavour
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- rich_sasha 5y agoI don’t think so. Hack the hackers. In a war if someone is shooting at you, you shoot back. Until you do, they keep shooting. I’m not saying it’s easy, just that this is the thing to do when you’re attacked.
- bruiseralmighty 5y agoGood point, but in a war, the goal is to disarm your enemies in order to pacify them. I'm not sure how you disarm a hacker in this century. State sponsored or not, everyone will have access to a computer.
- Moosdijk 5y agoLook up the lazarus group, state hackers from North Korea. The way you seem to be thinking about war doesn't apply at all to the current situation.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoActually, it's called "war", and it tends to be fairly effective (for one side, at least). Unfortunately it comes with a lot undesirable side effects.
- klyrs 5y agoIf this century sees large-scale DDoS attacks, information breaches, power plant / pipeline shutdowns, etc., I strongly prefer that to the trench warfare and carpet/nuclear bombings of the last century. Hacking wars are lukewarm. A hot war seems like it will involve a lot more drone strikes -- which might not be significantly better than the last century, but terrifying nonetheless. And until it comes home, I don't think Americans will fully appreciate how our government (hence, our nation) is perceived a terrorist organization abroad.
- vkou 5y agoYou're confusing state actors with people who are taking advantage of jurisdictional and regulatory arbitrage to do crime.
- spywaregorilla 5y agoStepping up enforcement fails all the time. If you want ransomware to stop being effective, make it illegal to pay the ransom.
- snapetom 5y agoI would have loved to have seen what would have happened to the East Coast of the US if Colonial wasn't allowed to pay ransomware, or the various beef suppliers in the Americas if they weren't allowed to pay. Making it illegal to pay just isn't feasible for practical business purposes.
- toast0 5y agoI imagine, Colonial would have restarted the pipeline without billing and figure it out later. Probably similar for beef suppliers, although I didn't read any media about what systems were impacted there. Assuming some of the labelling or other food safety things were impacted, you would need an FDA waiver of some sort.
- GilbertErik 5y agoThe main argument against making ransom payments illegal is that it simply drives ransom payments underground. Legislating something, similar to vices like drugs, alcohol or gambling, doesn't make it go away.
- a1369209993 5y agoI assume they mean make it illegal for corporations to pay the ransom. It's obviously unjust and ineffective to punish private individuals for paying ransoms, but that's not where the money is. OTOH, corporations have budgets and can be prosecuted if X millions dollars disappears out of it.
- hcurtiss 5y agoI don’t view it as obviously unjust as applied to individuals. That may suck for that person, but turning off the revenue demands substantially reduces the odds others are subject to ransoms. If all you do is focus on the individual case, you never actually address the root cause.
- Sniffnoy 5y agoI'm assuming you mean piracy rather than privateering?
- tarboreus 5y agoYou could say that Russian hackers are a form of privateer. Don't think that's what OP meant, though.
- Animats 5y agoTrain robberies and privateering were common because the culprits were rarely caught. There's a delightful video, "The Barbary States - The Final Yarrs"[1] which shows the end of piracy in the Mediterranean. The European sea-going states and the United States had been paying tribute to the Barbary pirates to sail cargoes past Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean Sea. That video claims that tribute was the biggest single expense of the United States Government in its early years. After the War of 1812, the United States had a moderately powerful navy. Congress decided to go to war against Algeria. Commodore Stephen Decatur was sent with a fleet. They won. Then the fleet went onto Tunis. They won. Then on to Tripoli. They won. The US paid no more tribute after that. It got even worse for the Barbary pirates. The European powers now saw the pirates could be crushed. In 1816, the British and Dutch sent a fleet. Someone from the Algerian navy shot at it. The fleet shot back. Most of the Algerian navy was sunk. Eventually, France conquered and annexed Algeria, and Spain conquered Morocco. For train robberies, see, of course, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The REvil crowd has managed to get to the point where the rather large US anti-terrorism community is focused on them. That usually doesn't end well. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSBmGaLt5OU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSBmGaLt5OU
- arcticbull 5y agoOne thing we did before to solve this problem in the train robbery days was eliminating bearer instruments. I strongly suggest we revisit this solution.
- mrtweetyhack 5y agoor make cryptocurrency illegal