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> Of course it's very saintly of you to refuse to pay, but often not paying is a very bad business decision. You can be sure that enough people will pay for you

> Of course it's very saintly of you to refuse to pay, but often not paying is a very bad business decision. You can be sure that enough people will pay for your refusal to not make any difference. And this is something where the law can help. Paying a ransom in these kinds of situations needs to be a felony. The punishment needs to be dealt to everyone who acted or knew and didn't report, and it needs to be harsh enough that even in the worst cases people would rather call the cops and report than risk it. (Or, at least some employee in the organization would report it and save their own hide than risk it to protect their boss.) The ramsomware crisis is really bad now, and it keeps getting worse. It will not stop getting worse until the money dries up. Small businesses cannot be expected to have the level of IT knowledge that they absolutely can't be hacked. The reason they weren't victimized before at this level was that the money wasn't there. There are enough places in the world where the authorities will look the other way (or actively cheer on the criminals), meaning this will not end until the flow of money is stopped. If you want to mitigate the losses caused by ransomware gangs, create a subsidized insurance system that helps the victims. Just, that insurance is not allowed to pay off the criminals, just help the business get back on it's feet.

FDSGSG 5y ago
Companies would still pay even if making ransomware payments was a felony. The ransomware gangs would not go away, companies would just have a bigger incentive to hide ransomware attacks. These groups aren't going to go away even if 95% of companies suddenly stopped paying, deploying ransomware costs next to nothing. There's also a huge incentive for ransomware actors to punish this sort of regulation. > The ramsomware crisis is really bad now, and it keeps getting worse. How come everybody is crying about the "ransomware crisis", but you never hear about a "BEC crisis"? BEC losses are bigger than ransomware losses, and they keep getting worse.

FDSGSG 5y ago

Companies would still pay even if making ransomware payments was a felony. The ransomware gangs would not go away, companies would just have a bigger incentive to hide ransomware attacks. These groups aren't going to go away even if 95% of companies suddenly stopped paying, deploying ransomware costs next to nothing. There's also a huge incentive for ransomware actors to punish this sort of regulation. > The ramsomware crisis is really bad now, and it keeps getting worse. How come everybody is crying about the "ransomware crisis", but you never hear about a "BEC crisis"? BEC losses are bigger than ransomware losses, and they keep getting worse.