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> Over the past few weeks the FBI, Department of Justice (DOJ), Interpol, and other international law enforcement agencies have worked together to incarcerate a
by smokey_circles 5y ago
> Over the past few weeks the FBI, Department of Justice (DOJ), Interpol, and other international law enforcement agencies have worked together to incarcerate and indict ransomware threat actors. Through this effort, millions of dollars in ransom payments have been recovered.
yet still, cryptocurrency gets blamed for all the ransomware. nevermind that clearly the law is able to find some course to take, or the unsolved cases unrelated unrelated crypto or any of the myriad of studies about why crime exists. no, the mere existence of monero is why we have international criminal syndicates. never happened with drug cartels or insider trading rings. heck even warlords are bitcoins fault.
odd rant, I know, but the argument that "all that crypto does is encourage criminals" is willfully ignorant. tale as old as time.
"what did they do before crypto then smartie pants"
cash.
and before that: gold. probably shiny rocks before that.
we could try defeat these actors but honestly I am unable to believe it's just human nature. we suck sometimes
- strombofulous 5y agoAre there any examples of widespread ransomware that demanded payment in cash, gold, or shiny rocks?
- gigaflop 5y agoI think it was the norm for ransoms to be paid in gold or some kind of physical wealth back in the Y1K era.
- strombofulous 5y agoThat's true but the article is specifically talking about ransomware
- Kneecaps07 5y ago> Through this effort, millions of dollars in ransom payments have been recovered I'm curious about who gets this money? I certainly have never heard of a company getting their money back from the feds.
- quickthrower2 5y agoHow do I send $1m in cash to Russia to pay the ransom? Or $1000 for that matter?
- Animats 5y agoBitcoin, of course. Classically, kidnappers and extortionists were caught when the money passed. It was hard to find an untraceable way to do that. But with modern cryptocurrency technology, criminals have solved that problem.
- quickthrower2 5y agoThats my point :-). Cash is too cumbersome and susceptible to MITM be that criminal, government or sunk boat.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- BlueGh0st 5y agoBefore crypto, it was Liberty Reserve and similar money-gram services and before/during/after that it was/is Green Dot and other gift cards.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]