Royal Mail dismisses ‘absurd’ $80M ransom demand • Hacker News Board

Re: Royal Mail dismisses ‘absurd’ $80M ransom demand

#101

Post by moremetadata » Thu, Feb 16, 2023, 3:40 AM UTC

wesleychen wrote: post #52

RobotToaster wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does international post TO China still cost so much then?

It's because when you ship internationally, you only pay for the domestic leg (e.g. in America) and not the terminal leg (e.g. in China). Your shipping costs to China cost so much because you have to pay the American rate, while people in China shipping to America have to pay the Chinese rate.

Some countries are cheaper for some things than others, that's why so many jobs from the west were offshored to parts of the world with inferior legislation, inferior infrastructure and inferior currency's.

Every country has their own currency, and some currency is more expensive than other currency's, so 1 British pound can buy 1.2 US Dollars, 1.12 Euros, 161 Japanese Yens and so on. The British pound is also the oldest central bank currency in the world.

So when someone buys something made abroad, they are buying into Child Abuse and Slavery.

Unfortunately, our Govt's also force people into this situation by putting things like govt services online when considering how much of todays tech is made in country's with questionable legal frameworks.

And all the while is also draws attention away from the financial system that cant make its mind up, how its going to evolve to fulfil its social contract and obligations with the public because some people cant relinquish power masquerading as knowledge.

Its all chicken and egg situation stuff.

Re: Royal Mail dismisses ‘absurd’ $80M ransom demand

#102

Post by muro » Thu, Feb 16, 2023, 7:55 AM UTC

pc_edwin wrote: post #86

pc86 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Preventing large monetary transfers to organized crime inevitably leads to a culture of lawlessness and imperils all citizens" is certainly an interesting take, I'll give you that.

The alternative is a moral/philosophical claim that there are no situations where dealing with organised crime is acceptable. This is patently absurd, as there exists not only situations where its reasonable but an imperative to deal with organised crime.

Such as?

Re: Royal Mail dismisses ‘absurd’ $80M ransom demand

#103

Post by messe » Thu, Feb 16, 2023, 9:13 AM UTC

ricardobayes wrote: post #74

Our_Benefactors wrote: post #20

I bought some candy from Amazon that was shipped by Royal Mail, and it never arrived. Amazon told me to take up the refund with Royal Mail, with no instructions how to do so. Anyone know how I can get a refund from Amazon/Royal Mail for the candy they never sent?

Anecdotal, but I've just heard someone getting refused to be refunded because instead of a phone, the return carrier delivered a bunch of batteries. Now the end client is without a product, and without money, with basically no recourse. Probably best to document the whole return process, that's just the world we live in right now.

> Now the end client is without a product, and without money, with basically no recourse

They can sue in small claims.

Re: Royal Mail dismisses ‘absurd’ $80M ransom demand

#104

Post by lostlogin » Thu, Feb 16, 2023, 9:59 AM UTC

personjerry wrote: post #46

It's fucking ridiculous to hit the postal service, providing a practically-free function to a lot of people who really need it, and operating at barely even (in US and Canada too, so I imagine other countries are similar). The ransomers sound like kids, "speculating that the directors personally held 100m of crypto"? What a disgusting amateur job.

Ransomeware has hit the NHS and I have colleagues who had their CT scanners locked.

I don’t think the ethics of the operation are high on the list of considerations.

Re: Royal Mail dismisses ‘absurd’ $80M ransom demand

#105

Post by pc_edwin » Thu, Feb 16, 2023, 11:34 AM UTC

muro wrote: post #102

pc_edwin wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative is a moral/philosophical claim that there are no situations where dealing with organised crime is acceptable. This is patently absurd, as there exists not only situations where its reasonable but an imperative to deal with organised crime.

Such as?

Hackers gaining control of air traffic systems and threatening to shut them down or threatening to open dams during peak monsoon season?

Hackers gaining control over the space station and not only threatening the lives of the crew but also threatening to send it back to earth targeting a high population area.

Re: Royal Mail dismisses ‘absurd’ $80M ransom demand

#106

Post by trompetenaccoun » Thu, Feb 16, 2023, 2:40 PM UTC

personjerry wrote: post #46

It's fucking ridiculous to hit the postal service, providing a practically-free function to a lot of people who really need it, and operating at barely even (in US and Canada too, so I imagine other countries are similar). The ransomers sound like kids, "speculating that the directors personally held 100m of crypto"? What a disgusting amateur job.

Is it really "ridiculous" to hit a crucial service provider in an enemy state, which local law enforcement is guaranteed to not punish them for, if they aren't outright funding the hackers.

These attacks happen all over the West, you only know about this one because the negotiation was leaked. Lots of public service providers are targeted, such as universities for example. The actual scandal is that this gets hushed up, if the people knew the scale of these attacks they might think we're in a sort of digital war.

Re: Royal Mail dismisses ‘absurd’ $80M ransom demand

#107

Post by immdischt » Sun, Feb 19, 2023, 10:49 AM UTC

clnq wrote: post #44

Why is ransomware still a problem? Is it that difficult to make off-site backups every hour? Storage is cheap. There are many air gapping options for backups, too. It sounds like a case of normalized deviance, for which the management should be held accountable. As much as I don’t like victim blaming, I think it’s beyond incompetent to still not backup your data in 2023 as a government org.

This ransom is not about encrypted data on the victims hard drive. Instead they have stolen data and money has to be paid so the attackers would not make the stolen data public.

Re: Royal Mail dismisses ‘absurd’ $80M ransom demand

#108

Post by immdischt » Sun, Feb 19, 2023, 10:55 AM UTC

f38zf5vdt wrote: post #14

If Russia were to physically disrupt a country's social services by force, it would be an act of war. Here they have disrupted a British social service without force by state sponsored hacker terrorists, rendering harm in the physical world. The line gets blurrier.

In this case data has been stolen, not encrypted and the ransom is about not making the stolen data public. The services that Royal Mail offers, have not been disrupted in the sense that they cannot continue to provide their services to their customers.