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U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#121

Post by jessaustin »

chitowneats wrote: post #95
jessaustin wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...when they're throwing people in prison for it. I thought I smelled authoritarianism! Here we see the ultimate purpose of this entire desultory exercise. Having problems online? No backups? Don't fix your pathetic shit; just be the excuse for the USA military-enforcement-imprisonment-industrial complex to oppress everyone on earth. Good grief.

https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disas... Nations make laws against bad things. People who violate those laws go to jail. A ban on cryptocurrency (or rather, exchanging it for dollars) will be a hell of a lot easier than banning popular intoxicants. We're done putting up with this particularly pernicious iteration of tulip mania. Time to pull the plug before it does any more damage.

I am shocked that I can't find the term "backup" at that authoritative link

Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#122

Post by randomhodler84 »

vmception wrote: post #15
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's what happened with drugs. The price of drugs actually dropped to zero and it's now impossible to get LSD.

I laughed so hard without my mask that I almost got kicked out of this WeWork

Agree — These ban happy nocoiner rantings about outlawing math are funny if they weren’t so damn authoritarian.

Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#123

Post by bouncycastle »

dragonwriter wrote: post #87
bouncycastle wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know how absurd that would be? Crypto like Bitcoin are just a database in essence. Throwing someone in prison for running a database on their computer would probably spell the end of general purpose computers. You will not be allowed to run databases anymore unless they are approved.

> Do you know how absurd that would be? Bitcoin is just a database in essence It’s really bot unusual for the law to treat things differently based on the purpose for which they are used when they are “just a database, in essence”.

I know, in theory you can have a law for everything. For example, in the Soviet Union basic electronics such as radios were restricted and you were not allowed to tune your sets to western stations.

Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#124

Post by kgeist »

rejectedandsad wrote: post #30

They absolutely should. We are in the midst of a cyberwar against criminal gangs sheltered by a kleptocracy that already attempted political sabotage against this country. All options must be on the table including physical retaliation - the threat isn’t going away.

Everyone points at Moscow as if they are behind the attacks, when, in fact, all we know is that the hackers are probably based in Russia (if treating Cyrillic keyboards specially isn't a silly false flag). They say Russia is unwilling to do anything etc. But did the FBI actually reach to their Russian counterparts for assistance? Or are they waiting for Moscow to come forward and fix all their security problems on its own? 10 years ago when mail bride order scams were popular (targeted at US/Canada/Australia), Russian police actually did catch and imprison a lot of scammers after American/Canadian requests; some of them in my own town

Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#125

Post by axlee »

meetups323 wrote: post #77
axlee wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather not see taxpayers have to foot the bill for the profit of megacorps neglecting proper cybersecurity while sitting on mountains of tax-evaded offshore cash, thank you. The industry should be magnitudes larger than it is currently, and we shouldn't encourage corporate recklessness by socializing the costs.

If other States sent proper Armies over to attack critical infrastructure the US government would surely foot the bill to aid in security. Why should cyberarmies be treated more leaniently?

Because proper cybersecurity should be treated as a cost of business, unlike the use of force which is an exclusive prerogative of the state. If large companies want the state to step in to absorb some of their costs, they should stop trying to avoid contributing to said state at every step of the way. If said public involvement came at the cost of partial ownership of companies requiring it, with complete disclosure of their financials including offshore, I would not mind at all. I am simply extremely tired of corporations running to daddy at every inconvenience - sometimes of their own doing - while actively trying to crash the whole system into the ground by starving it. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#126

Post by Kalium »

quantico wrote: post #116
Kalium wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say you're a CEO at Big Pipeline Co. One day your phone rings. It's the NSA. They say your systems are vulnerable as hell. That you're very likely going to be breached in a quite expensive way very soon. It could shut down all the pipes on which Big Pipeline Co depends! They offer to patch your systems for you. Do you accept, knowing that your staff will have to hand over hundreds to thousands of credentials? K…

The law should require certain minimums of security for infrastructure deemed vital, like oil pipelines. If entertainment companies and HIPPA can ensure those they work with practice good cybersecurity, why can't the government do the same?

https://www.energy.gov/national-security-safety/cybersecurit...

There's already branches of cabinet-level departments that try to do this. In my opinion they're having about the same level of efficacy as one might expect in any other set of large-scale changes in very large old companies with a wide variety of internal systems and needs. If you look you'll find a plethora of government-led attempts to secure various critical industries.

You'll also note that entertainment companies and hospitals are routinely breached. There's perhaps room to question if they are indeed practicing good cybersecurity.

Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#127

Post by coolspot »

wearywanderer wrote: post #85

My heart goes out to the people of Iraq, who apparently are once again going to get bombed for no good reason.

Here is the proof (shakes an USB flash drive) that they are hiding malware of mass destruction in there and we shall invade!

Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#128

Post by dcolkitt »

reader_mode wrote: post #107
dcolkitt wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have plenty of historical and current examples of governments imposing capital controls to restrict access to foreign currency. Very rarely does it result in the market price of the foreign currency going down. Usually quite the opposite. Heck, even in American history we once tried to ban private ownership of gold bullion. The black market price of gold rose substantially.

> We have plenty of historical and current examples of governments imposing capital controls to restrict access to foreign currency. Very rarely does it result in the market price of the foreign currency going down. Usually quite the opposite. That's a nonsense comparison. When governments impose capital controls it means their currency is already sinking and it's a last ditch attempt to prevent this inevitable scena…

The US only constitutes 15% of global GDP. There's no reason to think that US investors represent an outsized position in crypto holdings. American funds may have large positions, but that's largely because the American asset managers tend to attract substantial overseas positions.

There's no reason to think that, say a Japanese pension fund, that's invested in Grayscale is going to say, "oh shoot, guess there's no possible way to allocate to this asset class now". They'll just reinvest that same allocation in a UK or Caymans domiciled fund.

If anything the 85% of crypto investors who aren't invested, will most likely hoard in anticipation of the policy being reversed. For better or worse the US government has extremely low credibility when it comes to long-term policy consistency. Almost any US policy can simply be waited out until Congress/White House flips parties.

Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#129

Post by sharken »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #4

Curious if this will result in extraterritorial enforcement. For example, it's clear Moscow is either unwilling or unable to prosecute cyber criminals within its border.

It looks like a hard problem, there are a lot of details in the book Sandworm.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41436213-sandworm

And here's an interview with the author

https://www.theverge.com/21344961/andy-greenberg-interview-b...

Re: U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

#130

Post by jeffbee »

meetups323 wrote: post #77
axlee wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather not see taxpayers have to foot the bill for the profit of megacorps neglecting proper cybersecurity while sitting on mountains of tax-evaded offshore cash, thank you. The industry should be magnitudes larger than it is currently, and we shouldn't encourage corporate recklessness by socializing the costs.

If other States sent proper Armies over to attack critical infrastructure the US government would surely foot the bill to aid in security. Why should cyberarmies be treated more leaniently?

Because that analogy doesn’t hold. These cyber attacks are all but literally one bored kid and a computer. If the Russians sent one bored kid over here to blow up Hoover Dam, and that actually worked, we’d blame the people who put up the dam.

The fact is that the correct and secure working of computer systems and networks has been severely neglected by companies in favor of their profit. If we are to have state response to such neglect, it should be funded by a huge tax on every copy of Windows.

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