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EDIT: slightly different but I wasn't the only one with an idea in this direction: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-treasury-cyber-idUSKBN26M...
I remember reading about malware like this some time back. I tried everything I could to prepare but got vetoed at every turn by management. My idea was to do "pull" backups to a server, instead of "push" backups to shares, instead my boss's boss bought some commercial backup package that while ok, when it bombed a t-log chain, they blamed microsoft's implementation of native sql server backups, and of course was now…
Ransomware is great. 1. Creates a huge financial incentive to try and break PGP encryption. 2. Pushes aside all of the lame corporate compliance "infosec" people whose job it is get lied to about PCI compliance and bitch about version numbers that they don't understand. 3. Proves useless all of the "ex-special-forces" "red team" "master safecracker" Defcon LARPers. 4. Gives the insurance companies enough room to attr…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, it's definitely a contributing factor as to why it's profitable, but the attacks themselves could be done entirely out of malice if they wanted to.
Sure it can be done entirely out of malice, but it is now clear that cryptocurrencies enable the incentive of doing it for money. It is becoming more and more evident that ransomware attacks are the killer app of crypto.
Illegal activities were always the killer app. I doubt bitcoin would be where it is today without the silk road sites.
"Imagine a world in which every other month you’re forced to bid for your personal data back from hackers who continuously rob you. And a world where all of this is is so commonplace there are automated darknet marketplaces where others can bid on your data, and every detail of your personal life is up for sale to the highest bidder. Every private text, photo, email, and password is just a digital commodity to be tra…
I suspect the general population is already mostly- immune to this.
I think most people keep their pictures and all other important data in Google or Apple's services. Movies from Netflix, music with Spotify.
Those companies have backups.
If your phone or laptop gets hacked, you just wipe it and reinstall Chrome.
Access to email is what most normals need to protect.
Ransomware is really better shaped for attacking organizations than individuals, IMO.
...I still burn our family photos to write-once M-Discs, mind.
Governments should make it illegal to pay ransom. Only the government should be allowed to pay (in the name of victims) but under very strict conditions. EDIT: slightly different but I wasn't the only one with an idea in this direction: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-treasury-cyber-idUSKBN26M...
Ransom only encourages more crime. It's a form of aiding and abetting.
"A future in which ransomware and mass data theft are so ubiquitous they’ve worked their way into our daily lives" >>> True "The singular reason why these attacks are even possible is due entirely to rise of cryptocurrency" >>> False
Incentives matter. Bitcoin incentivizes certain types of criminal activity. As Bitcoin grows the negative externalities will become more pronounced. I truly don’t get the ethics of it. It is killing people, literally blood money as a great new technology. Bonus points for incentivizing climate destruction and burning of fossil fuels. I don’t understand the ethics of it.
> literally blood money
("Blood money" is an idiom, a colloquial metaphor. So a virtual currency is "literally" a metaphor? Ugh.)