You are dead wrong from a dynamic game-theoretic perspective: A credible commitment to ban ransom-paying means that future ransomware attacks will get zero val

You are dead wrong from a dynamic game-theoretic perspective: A credible commitment to ban ransom-paying means that future ransomware attacks will get zero value for the attackers (beyond whatever they can get out of stolen data I guess). The optimal short term response of the ransomware attackers is to push as hard as possible to make such a ban non-credible, through appeals to emotion like this one. The optimal long term response for the rest of us is to pass a law banning ransomware payments, make a few high profile examples of those who violate it, and then watch the ransomware epidemic die off, much the same way that kidnapping for ransom died off 50 years ago.