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

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#341

Post by inglor_cz » Sat, May 28, 2022, 9:28 AM UTC

accurrent wrote: post #302

danans wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think that's captured by "the most desperately impoverished portions of Indian cities". Their parents have often sent them to beg, because the need is greater than that society's willingness to fill (vs. low income school lunch programs in the US that keep us from having that scenario). The blame for that situation is squarely on India. But you don't have to go very far up the socioeconomic ladder even in Indi…

> The blame for that situation is squarely on India. This is a bit of a sweeping statement. Colonization has a big role to play here also. When the british left india the average life expectancy was barely 40. Many other former colonies struggle with poverty and the socioeconomic disaster that it brings along. India has improved since then but has a long way to go.

And many others don't... even places that were brutalized by the occupiers such as Taiwan and South Korea (the Japanese Empire definitely played for the gold in the Imperial League when it comes to brutality against the natives).

If anything, the measurable differences between ex-colonies, when it comes to their current state, are maddenigly confused. People tend to forget that even smaller European nations were sort-of colonized, the Czechs and the Slovenes by the Austrians, the Slovaks by the Hungarians, the Serbs by the Turks, the Finns by the Swedes and later by the Russians.

And it seems that it mattered who colonized you. Long term, former Austrian and German colonies are doing okay, Hungarian less so (sorry, Hungarians, but it is true!), Russian and Turkish ones much less so. You can still see the difference e.g. in Romania, when you cross the former Hungaro-Turkish border, or in Poland, when you cross the former Russo-German border. Even 100 years of independence didn't erase the differences.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#342

Post by zitterbewegung » Sat, May 28, 2022, 9:43 AM UTC

uni_rule wrote: post #313

zitterbewegung wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea it’s not like a MRI machine you bought only uses Windows XP

Their ability to hold back infrastructure updates for old but still functional equipment is government tier.

Sorry but I was being unclear. The MRI machine's supplier designed it using Windows XP and they don't offer anything else. Sure it should be either airgapped or networked on some type of VLAN / quarantined by outside access but that's not my point.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#343

Post by psd1 » Sat, May 28, 2022, 12:28 PM UTC

dheera wrote: post #229

paulgb wrote: post #6

I was expecting them to want you to make a donation and send the receipt, but they want you to actually round up less fortunate kids and take them out for pizza. Bizarre.

I think one of the truly bizarre issues with helping the less fortunate is that many affluent people don't want to be seen helping people on the street. They'd rather discreetly put money in a box for "someone else" to do the "dirty" work.

...and also... Charity is a thing to do _discreetly_. One would never brag.

That's a cultural thing in the UK. The rules are different for the famous, where you can influence the behaviour of others by publicly endorsing a cause; but for private citizens, to boost about their good deeds? Frightfully infra dig

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#344

Post by sodality2 » Sat, May 28, 2022, 3:07 PM UTC

temp8964 wrote: post #335

sodality2 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's not about "creating something like Amazon" but rather helping people. There's more to "positive creations" than companies, in fact, if you asked a random person to rank "making Amazon" or "donating to charity" in terms of positivity, 9/10 would choose charity..

Creating Amazon is helping people, billions of people. If you don't understand this, this discussion is pointless. Let's just forget about it.

I do understand that. You asked what more could he do. It is factually true that donating would be an additional positive impact that he would have on the world. If you don't understand that, this discussion is pointless

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#345

Post by mlindner » Sat, May 28, 2022, 4:17 PM UTC

decebalus1 wrote: post #197

mlindner wrote: post #43

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?

I don't understand your point. Do you think poverty is something far away in 3rd world countries only? Your point is probably moot in countries with strong social welfare systems, but the USA for example has 16% of its children living in poverty. I live in a VERY well-off area in the USA, yet one of the local food banks I'm somewhat connected is frequented by a lot of families with children. Non-perishable food + kid…

No my point is that it's culturally impossible to just grab someone's children and take them out for food. They're not out wandering on the streets like they are in the world that the writer comes from. It's not a matter of wealth or what not, it's just culturally wrong and impossible.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#346

Post by moron4hire » Sat, May 28, 2022, 6:53 PM UTC

giraffe_lady wrote: post #96

seanhunter wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are charities who accept donations in crypto. We donated future royalties on secondary sales for some of the things we did at SXSW to Action against hunger for one example.

Charities will "accept" nearly anything because turning down donations is bad publicity and people barely need a reason at all to turn on a charity. They don't want it though and will offload it as cheaply as possible. Often this is a minor cost center for some charities lol.

My mother does consulting for non-profit fundraising departments, and I've helped her with her business on several occasions. Charities regularly turn down or ignore weird donations if they are not concretely 6+ figures.

Most of the places my mother has helped have gift processing employees (the folks who take in the findings and figure out the tax credit to the donor and figure out where in their ledgers it fits) who are not able to keep up with their work load. Which, to be completely honest, most of the time is because the gift processors aren't really that good at their job, but it is what it is (entry level job, low pay, high turnover, etc). It's basically a closet-space problem, though. If the gift processors are more competent, the whole operation is usually more competent, and there's more work per person, so it comes out in the wash.

So weird gifts like "residual royalties on secondary sales" are likely to get ignored. The harder it is to put a rock-solid, today-dollars value on a gift, the more likely it is to get rejected or just ignored and never actually processed, sitting in limbo where the donor thinks they've gave but there are no actionable funds for the org to spend, because it's a huge tax fraud liability waiting to happen.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#347

Post by Anunayj » Sat, May 28, 2022, 9:01 PM UTC

SkinTaco wrote: post #322

thematrixturtle wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ring up your nearest orphanage, offer to pay for a pizza party. Getting permission to post photos of kids on social media is probably the hardest part.

> Getting permission to post photos of kids on social media is probably the hardest part. This shouldn't be too hard, just ask their parents

yea about that...

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#348

Post by accurrent » Sun, May 29, 2022, 12:37 AM UTC

inglor_cz wrote: post #341

accurrent wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The blame for that situation is squarely on India. This is a bit of a sweeping statement. Colonization has a big role to play here also. When the british left india the average life expectancy was barely 40. Many other former colonies struggle with poverty and the socioeconomic disaster that it brings along. India has improved since then but has a long way to go.

And many others don't... even places that were brutalized by the occupiers such as Taiwan and South Korea (the Japanese Empire definitely played for the gold in the Imperial League when it comes to brutality against the natives). If anything, the measurable differences between ex-colonies, when it comes to their current state, are maddenigly confused. People tend to forget that even smaller European nations were sort…

How long you colonized a place is important as well. Japanese occupation did not last very long and while brutal Japanese were not very effective at using their colonized subjects for any productive labor (they were too brutal for their subjects to cooperate).

Taiwan is a bit interesting because much of the migration happened post world war with the rise of the CCP. While Chinese presence there predates this wave, most ethnic Chinese there are migrants. The aborignese aren't particularly well off.

With regards to German colonies doing OK I'd like to point you to the African colonies like Central African Republic.

British occupation in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan broke down a lot of industries. For instance industries like Wootz Steel, Muslin which had a very long history were in effect dismantled as the British could not compete.

> During the period of Company rule, the East India Company imported British-produced cloth into the Indian subcontinent, but became unable to compete with the local muslin industry. The Company administration initiated several policies in an attempt to suppress the muslin industry, and muslin production subsequently experienced a period of decline. It has been alleged that in some instances Indian weavers were rounded up and their thumbs chopped off, although this has been refuted by historians as an misreading of a report by William Bolts from 1772. The quality, finesse and production volume of Bengali muslin declined as a result of these policies, continuing when India transitioned from Company rule to British Crown control. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslin

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#349

Post by rootkea » Sun, May 29, 2022, 8:04 AM UTC

danans wrote: post #312

accurrent wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The blame for that situation is squarely on India. This is a bit of a sweeping statement. Colonization has a big role to play here also. When the british left india the average life expectancy was barely 40. Many other former colonies struggle with poverty and the socioeconomic disaster that it brings along. India has improved since then but has a long way to go.

> This is a bit of a sweeping statement. Colonization has a big role to play here also I agree completely. Colonization set the stage for many of the persistent struggles faced by many in the developing world. But colonial powers didn't teach people in India how to oppress their own people, even if they wasted no time taking advantage of and amplifying the pre-existing situation. Today, when a country as productive a…

At a primary school in Utter Pradesh (a state in India) salt and bread (roti) was served to children as part of mid-day meal.

Then the state government did what any sensible government will do. They filed a case against the journalist for criminal conspiracy maligning the image of state government.

Since last few years it has become fashionable to call Indians who criticize the government "anti-national" as if nation = government.

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/up-case-against-journo...

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#350

Post by kylehotchkiss » Sun, May 29, 2022, 8:46 AM UTC

thematrixturtle wrote: post #320

iepathos wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no requirement to "pickup" any children. Easiest way to accomplish task 2 is to wait outside a pizza hut or kfc and ask families coming in if it's ok if you pay for their meal and take some photos to help with your situation. You can explain your situation to people if there are any questions and pretty much everyone will be happy to accept a free meal for your good deed. Free money with no strings is accept…

Only problem is, Pizza Hut etc are middle class plus in India, so any family going in will by definition not be the poor people the ransomware is trying to assist.

There are often children begging outside of pizza huts. A staff member or security guard often is posted to prevent them from entering.

(I’ve spent a few years living in north India as a foreigner)