3 ms·

I don't see any complications or deep thinking required before pointing fingers. It's the criminals who are to blame. No amount of educating end users will mag

I don't see any complications or deep thinking required before pointing fingers. It's the criminals who are to blame. No amount of educating end users will magically fix these kind of attacks, whether or not people write articles about their ransom payments.

gringe 12y ago
I beg to disagree. If you effectively made everyone realize that not paying utterly destroys the extortionist's business model, that does "magically fix these kinds of attacks" overnight. Not that I'm saying educating people about this is practical or even possible. One thing that I think is destructive though is "blaming the criminals", since a) we don't even know who they are, b) their business model depends entirely on them being promoted as a legitimate threat you can pay to fix, and c) blaming them distracts from finding a real solution.
- joosters 12y ago
  Since, as you say, educating everyone is not possible, you can't destroy the business model. So let's keep the 'magical fixes' out of the discussion. How does blaming the criminals distract from finding a real solution? (You haven't yet even suggested a viable solution that we could be distracted from)
- headShrinker 12y ago
  While I agree with the essence of your message, it is flawed only because of free will. When given the opportunity an individual will usually think selfishly even in regard to a larger system. Isn't this the basis for "game theory"? Everyone individually thinks they can squeak by, get a little bit of an advantage, pay off the extortionists, no harm done right? Or in another example, if nobody took a job for a shitty company there would be no shitty companies right? So why are people taking shitty company jobs?
- phaus 12y ago
  I'll have to find the article later, but I read somewhere that about 1.7% of victims actually ended up paying money to the original cryptolocker guys, yet this seems to be enough to keep them in business. For your plan to work, you would need pretty much 100% compliance, which simply isn't going to happen.

gringe 12y ago

I beg to disagree. If you effectively made everyone realize that not paying utterly destroys the extortionist's business model, that does "magically fix these kinds of attacks" overnight. Not that I'm saying educating people about this is practical or even possible. One thing that I think is destructive though is "blaming the criminals", since a) we don't even know who they are, b) their business model depends entirely on them being promoted as a legitimate threat you can pay to fix, and c) blaming them distracts from finding a real solution.

joosters 12y ago
Since, as you say, educating everyone is not possible, you can't destroy the business model. So let's keep the 'magical fixes' out of the discussion. How does blaming the criminals distract from finding a real solution? (You haven't yet even suggested a viable solution that we could be distracted from)
headShrinker 12y ago
While I agree with the essence of your message, it is flawed only because of free will. When given the opportunity an individual will usually think selfishly even in regard to a larger system. Isn't this the basis for "game theory"? Everyone individually thinks they can squeak by, get a little bit of an advantage, pay off the extortionists, no harm done right? Or in another example, if nobody took a job for a shitty company there would be no shitty companies right? So why are people taking shitty company jobs?
phaus 12y ago
I'll have to find the article later, but I read somewhere that about 1.7% of victims actually ended up paying money to the original cryptolocker guys, yet this seems to be enough to keep them in business. For your plan to work, you would need pretty much 100% compliance, which simply isn't going to happen.