GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor • Hacker News Board

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#261

Post by hedora » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:16 PM UTC

mushbino wrote: post #116

usednet wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its definitely a cultural thing. The task would be extremely easy in any Indian city, but they probably don’t realize it would be near impossible in the West. Same with task 3, it would bankrupt Americans to pay for somebody else’s medical bills.

I've never been bankrupted by paying for millions of senior citizens to have Medicare, but I have been bankrupted by my own health care expenses.

If the goal is to pay off some random person's medical debt, things become extremely affordable:

https://ripmedicaldebt.org

I think that, by law, whenever debt is sold, the person that owes the debt should have the right to buy their own debt at the sale price. The current system is full of moral hazards, and this would help level the playing field.

(Sorry to hear about the bankruptcy. That really shouldn't be possible, anywhere.)

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#262

Post by sirmarksalot » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:25 PM UTC

cupofpython wrote: post #193

867-5309 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agree. the freelancer / gig economy is dominate by script kiddie / template churner companies in India for whom $2/hr is a good wage. there's no competing with that

this is a feature, not a bug, of globalization. Work that can be done in cheaper countries is allocated there. On a related note (and I get negative feedback whenever i say this, but) this is the future of all software developers as i see it. If you can do your entire job remotely, then "remote" is going to get optimized over time. It does not make sense to spend your time in USA (for example) coding when you can sto…

I suspect you've never been a technical liaison to an offshore team. I believe your vision is to replace all satisfying work with soul-crushing work. If all your work is done by people who don't want to work there, including the supervisors, then what kind of quality can your company expect?

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#263

Post by cupofpython » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:28 PM UTC

klibertp wrote: post #224

cupofpython wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a feature, not a bug, of globalization. Work that can be done in cheaper countries is allocated there. On a related note (and I get negative feedback whenever i say this, but) this is the future of all software developers as i see it. If you can do your entire job remotely, then "remote" is going to get optimized over time. It does not make sense to spend your time in USA (for example) coding when you can sto…

> when you can stop at developing the specs and send it overseas to be coded for half the cost or less. Good luck with that. Please, do try it and report back to tell us how it went. My prediction: No matter what you do, the spec will be incomplete, and if it's large enough, it will contain contradictions. The culture of not questioning superiors in many of "overseas" will make it hard to notice and only after substa…

Yes there would be logistical issues if we tried to actualize this future today, rather than allowing it to naturally progress over time as I stated. Foreign culture is irrelevant, as you can bring people in to train them on-site and then let them go back home to work.. or send someone from here over there. Also remote workers will evolve to meet whatever is necessary to make the arrangement work because the financial incentive is HUGE and isn't going anywhere.

the point is that lower cost of living areas will promote remote work to transition there from high cost of living areas over time. The pandemic already showcased this.

Youre right that the end result will probably be worse than what we have today, but that will not stop it from happening. they will figure out how to be good enough

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#264

Post by cupofpython » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:29 PM UTC

vincentmarle wrote: post #239

cupofpython wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a feature, not a bug, of globalization. Work that can be done in cheaper countries is allocated there. On a related note (and I get negative feedback whenever i say this, but) this is the future of all software developers as i see it. If you can do your entire job remotely, then "remote" is going to get optimized over time. It does not make sense to spend your time in USA (for example) coding when you can sto…

I agree with you in principle but having worked a lot with cheaper contractors overseas, in practice you are often wasting time and money.

yes today. overseas is still behind on raw skill. they will catch up, and SWE does not promote complicated work - it does the opposite. it promotes the simplest code that works, because that makes it easiest to maintain.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#265

Post by maxerickson » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:31 PM UTC

9873259735609 wrote: post #217

gus_massa wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to build a table, so I chomp a tree. You want to build a chair, and you chomp another tree. I want to build another table, so I must walk a longer distance to find a tree. If everyone cut trees, it will get harder to find one. Another person want to build a music instrument. He need some special kind of tree, with some specific size and age, so he want all of us to not cut that tree. Does he make a fence to pr…

> I want to build a table, so I chomp a tree. You want to build a chair, and you chomp another tree. I want to build another table, so I must walk a longer distance to find a tree. If everyone cut trees, it will get harder to find one. No coercion here. There is no force or threats of violence involved in these scenarios. Imposing a negative externality on someone is not necessarily coercion. > Another person want to…

The claim that the act of creation gives you exclusive rights can be coercion in a value system that doesn't care about the act of creation (or just cares less about it than things like mutual agreement about what to do with the commons).

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#266

Post by cupofpython » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:33 PM UTC

ipaddr wrote: post #245

cupofpython wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a feature, not a bug, of globalization. Work that can be done in cheaper countries is allocated there. On a related note (and I get negative feedback whenever i say this, but) this is the future of all software developers as i see it. If you can do your entire job remotely, then "remote" is going to get optimized over time. It does not make sense to spend your time in USA (for example) coding when you can sto…

I think AI will do a better cheaper job before your vision of the future comes to life.

i like that bet, I was ignoring AI in my observations. The server running the AI will probably be cheaper overseas all the same though

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#267

Post by bonestamp2 » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:33 PM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #68

I can see a younger version of myself making something like this and intentionally letting it slip to the media for attention. I th8nk this line is telling: "Since there are no known victims/ targets for the ransomware group, their Tactics, Techniques and Procedures remain unknown." I don't think there's a risk if any great outbreak here. A bunch of scriptkiddies took some open source project and modified it with som…

Maybe not even script kiddies, there are (allegedly) Ransomware as a Service organizations now.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#268

Post by bonestamp2 » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #213

bell-cot wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Convince or not, I'm thinking you might attract some really personal attention from law enforcement by the time you made your pitch to the 5th kid. Or maybe you happen to be a 97-year-old retired nun, who everyone in your neighborhood knows, and it'd be fine. Not trying to be judgemental or anything.

The demand is indicative of where the author lives: think where in the world it would be acceptable for a stranger to approach children under 13 and invite them to lunch at a restaurant.

Not necessarily even a stranger per se, but poor communities are often "closer" to each other. They (sometimes) depend on neighbors for help more than rich neighbors do. Many of the kids play outside because they don't all have ipads and playstations keeping them inside, many adults walk to the bus/subway and interact with the kids in their neighborhood every day. So, I can see how a well known neighbor might splurge on a treat for some of the kids in their neighborhood to brighten their day.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#269

Post by btdmaster » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

exabrial wrote: post #131

Right now, most people in the US work for free 3-4 months out of the year via taxes. This is theft as well, but interestingly enough it has a smaller overhead then taxes, which nearly all of the funds are transferred to the 1%.

Side note: taxes do not fund spending in countries that issue their own currency and that currency is not pegged to something else. In this sense, the US does not need taxes to fund spending on healthcare, in the same way it does not need taxes to spend nearly $1 trillion on the military.

Modern monetary theory describes taxes as primarily tools to reduce some effects of income inequality (and that is not done anymore) and, most importantly, provide the value of money. In essence, taxes (and the threat of imprisonment if you do not pay them) is what makes paper, and now numbers on computers, a thing you will die without.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#270

Post by oehpr » Fri, May 27, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

temp8964 wrote: post #257

mathlover2 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see a scenario in which a "chaotic good" hacker uses a customized form of ransomware on some large corporation or extremely wealthy person in order to force them to make a donation or do some majorly positive action for the world.¹ Pulling this off without going against the "good" qualification would require appropriately selecting the target and files to encrypt, and appropriately phrasing the demands made to…

> "do some majorly positive action for the world" What can Jeff Bezos do more positive than creating Amazon? What can Elon Musk do more positive than creating Tesla and SpaceX? etc. etc.

/s?