Loved the comment at the bottom: 'So basically ProtonMail said "We're incompetent and fund criminals… give us money."'
There's another good one:
"ProtonMail should apply for a refund. Or at least store credit."
ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
11–20 of 233 posts
Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
#12That's really not smart. By paying it up you just incentive them to do it more often. Not only to yourself but to other websites.
This is the first case I've seen where a digital blackmailer didn't follow through with their promise. It's bad for business for them to renege as it increases the chance that their next victim wont pay.
The article states that it was most likely two different attackers, due to the different methods used and the blackmailer denying responsibility for the comtinued (unsophisticated) attack.
I'm not sure what to think, but I can easily understand why they did pay. It's easy for others to say what would be best for the industry, but when you are the one suffering and your ISP is angry at you, and you can pay a small sum to (possibly) make the problem go away, your opinion will change.
Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
#13God, why? That's utter incompetence. Never pay ransoms. This has highly lowered my opinion of ProntoMail.
Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
#14I'm reminded of a similar article on ransoms and FBI's strange advice to pay up.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10482242
I think this is a good example of why this is bad advice.
Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
#15NEVER EVER PAY RANSOM MONEY.
Please. Even if your business will suffer it will suffer a lot more if you do pay since now it is known you'll cave. Also: you are making the problem larger for others.
Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
#16God, why? That's utter incompetence. Never pay ransoms. This has highly lowered my opinion of ProntoMail.
Yeah, I'd be upset if I were one of the people who donated and found that's what they did with the money.
Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
#17That's really not smart. By paying it up you just incentive them to do it more often. Not only to yourself but to other websites.
This is the first case I've seen where a digital blackmailer didn't follow through with their promise. It's bad for business for them to renege as it increases the chance that their next victim wont pay.
The original DDoSers actually did honor the ransom and stop their attack. However, another group started hitting them after the ransom was paid. Probably because they just advertised themselves as people who will reward DDoS attacks.
Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
#18I don't understand why the attackers wouldn't stop? Why would they want to build up a reputation of not being worth paying? If they were always true to the word, then people would mostly always pay.
Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
#19I'm reminded of a similar article on ransoms and FBI's strange advice to pay up. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10482242 I think this is a good example of why this is bad advice.
Ransomware is a different scenario. With ransomware, if you have no backups and absolutely need your files back, paying the ransom is the only sane option. Of course, this can easily be prevented by taking frequent backups.
With a DDoS, there are almost no advantages to paying the ransom. Much better to spend the money on DDoS mitigation instead, to help now and in the future.
Also, the FBI wasn't making an official statement. It was just an off-hand remark from an agent, recommending technically ignorant people who desperately want their files back to pay the ransom.
Re: ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the first case I've seen where a digital blackmailer didn't follow through with their promise. It's bad for business for them to renege as it increases the chance that their next victim wont pay.
The original DDoSers actually did honor the ransom and stop their attack. However, another group started hitting them after the ransom was paid. Probably because they just advertised themselves as people who will reward DDoS attacks.
Of course. That's what any clever criminal would do, if they pay up once chances are they'll pay up again. My ISP was hit like this a few months ago and sent out an email outlining the situation to their customers before the second wave began to give us a heads up and very clearly stated they had absolutely no intention of paying whatever would happen and that's the only acceptable stance and I as their customer fully supported them in this decision and would have left if they had decided otherwise.
Props to cloudflare for standing by to help out in that particular instance, absolutely fantastic.