101–110 of 241 posts
My mini Ask HN: Do you trust makers of security software?
But in the context of ransomware, the advice presented here is game-theoretically sound (and proven by thousands of years of experience in dealing with criminals demanding ransom), so I do trust it.
> When [you are infected with ransomware], you can’t get to the data unless you pay a ransom. However this is not guaranteed and you should never pay! What bothers me about their advice is that it is only correct macroeconomically. For your particular case it could be the best solution to just pay - as even police departments have done before. It also ignores that it is in cybercriminals' best interest to let you dec…
> What bothers me about their advice is that it is only correct macroeconomically. That's because it's the correct advice. Ransom is a very old business, and experience throughout history shows you should never pay the danegeld[1] . > ignores that it is in cybercriminals' best interest to let you decrypt after you paid That isn't being ignored. Paying the ransom is short-term thinking. Of course they will let you dec…
Seems overblown.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anytime you're in a similar dilemma just disable JavaScript. There are even plugins that allow you to do that with one click.
The better advice is imo to keep your browser up-to-date. JS exploits have been come increasingly rare these days, mostly due to Chrome's excellent example of patching quickly and paying good money for exploits (e.g. Pwn2Own). JS 0days are imo far too valuable now to waste them on normal users. So no, disabling JS wouldn't make much sense, if your have an evergreen browser. Disable Flash & Java and try to minimize do…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anytime you're in a similar dilemma just disable JavaScript. There are even plugins that allow you to do that with one click.
The better advice is imo to keep your browser up-to-date. JS exploits have been come increasingly rare these days, mostly due to Chrome's excellent example of patching quickly and paying good money for exploits (e.g. Pwn2Own). JS 0days are imo far too valuable now to waste them on normal users. So no, disabling JS wouldn't make much sense, if your have an evergreen browser. Disable Flash & Java and try to minimize do…
> When [you are infected with ransomware], you can’t get to the data unless you pay a ransom. However this is not guaranteed and you should never pay! What bothers me about their advice is that it is only correct macroeconomically. For your particular case it could be the best solution to just pay - as even police departments have done before. It also ignores that it is in cybercriminals' best interest to let you dec…
It doesn't ignore any of the things you said. Yes, it's most likely better for you to pay. This kind of selfish thinking is, like many other kind of selfish thinking, what enables this type of crime in the first place . Sure the criminals will release your files. Just like with regular, "meatspace" ransom, only a stupid criminal would not release hostages after having their demands met. It's in their best interest to…
To a certain criminal any effort no matter how miniscule at all in actually providing a way to decrypt the files is useless, and I think with the reputation that's spread about ransomware we're at a point where more scammers will start to piggyback on reputation and stop following through
Even in an issue about software, americans pull out guns. Have you noticed how noone else does this? It's shocking and abhorrent.
You do realise guns have other uses other than shooting people don't you. There's nothing remotely shocking or abhorrent about guns.
> When [you are infected with ransomware], you can’t get to the data unless you pay a ransom. However this is not guaranteed and you should never pay! What bothers me about their advice is that it is only correct macroeconomically. For your particular case it could be the best solution to just pay - as even police departments have done before. It also ignores that it is in cybercriminals' best interest to let you dec…