I wonder if there is a way to come down with the full force of the police & surveillance state on this. I mean it has to be good for something.... For example

I wonder if there is a way to come down with the full force of the police & surveillance state on this. I mean it has to be good for something.... For example (and I'm just making this up): If the malware contacts a server, send a rapid response team there. Find out where the data goes next, repeat. If they make it a national security or terrorism issue, they would have the cooperation of many western/interpol states (at least Europe, Australia and Canada). I also can't imagine that its in the interest of the Russians to be a host to this kind of crime, so you might get them to cooperate, too. I realize that this is complicated through the bitcoin protocol (if the malware doesn't communicate back in any other way - although it has to get the key from somewhere). But in an age where the GHCQ can record all trafic in and out of the UK for a day, it shouldn't be beyond their technical reach to monitor all bitcoin transactions passing through their nets in realtime. A transaction from/to a tainted wallet was issued from your PC? Expect a SWAT team in 10 minutes at your door. Of course this would be grossly undemocratic, complete overkill, and create huge collateral damage. But I believe the capabilities for such a crackdown are almost there. And if criminals start targeting infrastructure and law enforcement (and don't just "accidentially" attack them), something like that might happen.