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I don't see why a company would pay a ransom to protect their customers from identity theft -- the losses are public, while the costs to them are a very small n
by Noumenon72 1y ago
I don't see why a company would pay a ransom to protect their customers from identity theft -- the losses are public, while the costs to them are a very small number of customers that read about this, think they're likely to lose the data again, didn't already lose their data in this leak, remember this story at the time of purchase, and value that more than things like ticket time or ticket price. I don't think the hackers should be making any money this way.
- bwfan123 1y agoWe have public agencies like the police that are paid for by the tax-payers for securing property. Are there similar agencies who are incentivized to stop these situations. During the pipeline breaches several years back, I recall aggressive action to disrupt the money-trail.
- dablya 1y agoTo the extent these situation are as illegal as property theft, public agencies tasked with law enforcement, like the police, are in the same position to secure your data as they are to secure your property, no?
- Bairfhionn 1y agoThe only thing that would prevent this from happening would be if the companies make their stuff safe. You can't police the world.
- shiandow 1y agoI think ransom is also a bit of a misnomer that the hackers deliberately use to frame the transaction in a more positive light. I mean, it's just extortion. Nothing is being ransomed, you don't get something back and you can't really secure something already lost. It suffers from the same problems as other forms of extortion, namely that you can't really trust the other party to do what you want and really they have no incentive to do so.
- chii 1y agobut the parent post's point still stands - extortion (or ransom) requires something important to be held. If the private data of customers is not actually important, it cannot be used as a threat in the extortion.
- praash 1y agoI don't think data leak extortioners have any incentive to even pretend they won't keep asking further payment. Why not just offer a monthly subscription "service"?
- LadyCailin 1y agoAt that point, the company should just pay for an actual security team.
- naldb 1y agoSecurity is not a binary state. You can pay as much as you want but there’s no assurance that you won’t be hacked.
- gessha 1y agoGreat, now even crime groups are following consultancy advice. \s
- baobabKoodaa 1y agoAnd the best part? The ransomware startup can now mark the income as MRR extending to infinity, thereby significantly increasing the startup's valuation! If you want to learn more about B2B sales, hit that like button and click on this .exe file to subscribe for more updates.
- southernplaces7 1y agothanks for the laugh, gave me a good chuckle by ".exe file"
- 1y ago
- jacquesm 1y agoIt's much simpler: paying will result in more crime like this.
- hmottestad 1y agoYou never know. Pay them enough and they might retire to an island somewhere instead.
- lotsofpulp 1y agoIslands are pretty expensive to live on. If anything, retiring on the island will require more crime.
- billy99k 1y agoThe only reason these persist is because companies pay out and they can receive it in untraceable crypto currency in countries that are nearly to prosecute them in. Appeasement has never worked.
- anonym29 1y agoRansomware existed before cryptocurrency, and BTC is extremely traceable - far more traceable than cash, for instance. The only factor that matters is the adversaries residing in a jurisdiction with a lack of enforcement.
- makeitdouble 1y ago> The only reason these persist You make it sound like a simplistic game with set rules. There will be myriads of other reasons to breach companies, and even strictly sticking to the money part, doing ransom/extortion can have secondary and tertiary effects worth enough to do it even if the ransom fails. If you look at it as a market, the victim is only one actor among many.
- gnfargbl 1y agoThe current groups, sure, but the existence of a functioning market tends to bring in more participants. Or to put it another way, there are plenty of smart people in the world who found themselves born in a less-than-ideal country and are willing to solve their problems through crime. The only sustainable solution is to make crime no longer pay. Nothing else will work.
- ohyoutravel 1y agoIt’s even more dystopian than that. In Australia itself, Qantas is the only carrier between many cities. So if you decide to not book Qantas, you’re potentially driving across the Outback.