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GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

cloudsek.com

41–50 of 366 posts

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#41

I assumed the "goodwill" would be a donation to an association that would be a front for the hackers to get the money somehow, but it seems that it's really acts of goodwill with no real money flowing, so maybe the hackers actually believe they're doing good ?

I mean charities could open up crypto accounts; since it's a public ledger, the ransomware operators would be able to see the transaction.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#42
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of treatments? How regularly?

While in Brazil a person very close to me suffered a very destructive paranoid psychotic crisis. We've tried help from the public healthcare but their earliest waiting time was 1 month. I've slept for days at the door because she was convinced there were Russian cameras and radioactive emitters planted at our house and wanted to run away. That person stopped to eat and bath and wasn't thinking rationally. We couldn't…

In the Netherlands I once sought an eye treatment for my wife. The local hospital only had a waiting time of 2 months. So I called my insurance company who then found another clinic ~45 minutes away by public transport in some small village, which had a waiting time of 2 days. Everything (besides the bus ride) was still covered by the public insurance system.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#44

I assumed the "goodwill" would be a donation to an association that would be a front for the hackers to get the money somehow, but it seems that it's really acts of goodwill with no real money flowing, so maybe the hackers actually believe they're doing good ?

I mean charities could open up crypto accounts; since it's a public ledger, the ransomware operators would be able to see the transaction.

Being forced to donate would just result in refunds. The current way they're doing it, there's no way to refund.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#45
post #23

Can I assume that the author of this ransomware is American or at least is very immersed in American culture? Because the activities listed sound very America-centric. I've never seen someone actually sleeping roadside in the cold, and since we have universal healthcare, I've also not heard of someone dying in the hospital because their loved ones couldn't gather up enough money. I guess I might as well just smash my…

It seems to come from India, though the only identifiers seem rather weak. I'll admit I know little about poverty in India, but all three seem possible there.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#46

This thing was written by someone who doesn't live in a developed country... There's no way to do those actions in a developed country. Does this person think that just random children are available to be given food to?

Seriously. If I went up to a group of kids and offered to take them to pizza hut I think I’d probably be arrested.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#47
post #5

Hah, Black Mirror-esque. But well, hopefully it has a IP filter to not hit countries with universal healthcare. /s And asking stranger kids "Hey kids, want some KFC?"... that should go well. "The hacker 4chan made me do it!"

Black Mirror meets Mr. Robot. An interesting reality nevertheless.

With a dash of fight club. It reminds me of the scene where Tyler puts a gun to Raymond's head and makes him go back to college.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#48
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of treatments? How regularly?

> What kind of treatments? How regularly? In the UK there is a department called NICE which uses health economics to understand how to best utilize the funding for the national health service to best improve health outcomes (generally measured by increasing QALY or Quality-Adjusted Life Years, but there are multiple measures in reality). This means that if there is a £500k treatment that could save the lives of a 70…

As an American, that's just disgusting. The government shouldn't decide if your parents die.

The free market should decide. If you created enough shareholder value then you'll have enough to pay for their treatment like God intended.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#49
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Universal healthcare is well overrated in the US. From a country that had it, it usually means: ugly hospitals, sad faces, long queues for treatments (I mean wait time for "free" treatment can be well over a year). There is no free lunch. On the other hand, I usually can get my kid to doctor same day, while using private healthcare provider (paid by my employer) it is almost impossible, 2-3 days wait. On yet another…

I think the right solution is the middle - private primary care and public chronic & advanced care. India does this but loses out on effectiveness because of capacity problems and simply the huge scale it needs to work at. Primary care is provided by private doctors and hospitals, so it is almost like a business. Doctors offices have websites, and get reviews from general public. You choose where you go to. All healt…

I think a good entry point for making public healthcare better would be making each doctor visit require a small amount of money. E.g. $1 or $5. This way people that go to doctor just to have a talk (because they are bored - yes that happens in public healthcare, because it is free so people abuse it) would free up the queue for people that really need the visit.

AFAIR there was such proposition in France some time ago, I don't know how they solved that.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#50
post #23

Can I assume that the author of this ransomware is American or at least is very immersed in American culture? Because the activities listed sound very America-centric. I've never seen someone actually sleeping roadside in the cold, and since we have universal healthcare, I've also not heard of someone dying in the hospital because their loved ones couldn't gather up enough money. I guess I might as well just smash my…

>I've also not heard of someone dying in the hospital because their loved ones couldn't gather up enough money

Am from a country with universal health care. It's not uncommon to die waiting for treatment or there simply not being any way to get the treatment in my country. Raising money to visit the US for treatment is a pretty common thing here as a result.

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