3 ms·

If we want to stop ransomeware, then government should make it illegal to pay ransoms. If CFOs faced jail, then companies hit with attacks would never pay. Afte

• sofixa 3y ago
  Sometimes the government itself might be impacted directly. What happens when a government agency/local government/whatever gets ransowmared, turns out their backups don't exist/work/were locked as well, and the options are to shut down which they can't, legally, or pay up? Or in cases such as the above, when the impacted private entity is a massive government contractor that is too big to fail? Those are reasons why I think it's unlikely such a legislation would appear, not why it's a bad idea. Liability, personal at that, for lack of cybersecurity should absolutely be introduced globally.
  • ttul 3y ago
    I’m pretty sure that any legislation making ransomsware payments unlawful could carve out exceptions to deal with national security matters.
  • stubish 3y ago
    A government gets to override the law by executive order. Maybe even in secret. A government is only beholden to a constitution, and sometimes not even that. I think this is why we are hearing of an alliance to stop payments. It at least provides a disincentive to caving in and making a payment, even if that disincentive is in practical terms minor political points. I suspect an alliance of western countries may happen. When the criminals are based in Russia, China and North Korea, we can expect those countries to already have a copy of all the leaked data, and paying ransoms is essentially just funding enemy spy agencies.
    • speedylight 3y ago
      As far as am aware executive orders can’t override or nullify laws, they’re mainly directives to government employees (exec branch) to do X thing under the authority of a specific statute.
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]