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Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

reuters.com

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Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#141
post #94
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So some asshat will be in charge of IT at [poor hospital], some rich people will foot the bill, and somehow that will improve...what? What is "global security?"

Oh, I forgot the poor are meant to suffer. Global security meaning: Perhaps, if the rich found that the cost of supporting poor hospitals was high, they'd determine that they would prefer to invest in cybersecurity in poor hospitals. (Not likely, considering how few wealthy organizations care about cybersecurity in their own organizations.)

There is no "the rich." Please be more specific about the people you're talking about.

Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#142
post #14

So there's that woman I follow who used to work in hostage and ransom negotiation business, and she's adamant there's no such thing as "no negotiations with terrorists" no matter public rhetoric or legislation. When push comes to shove, side channels and loopholes are inevitably found and third party contractors like her are getting hired. I strongly suspect this too will end up mostly a jurisdiction/accounting nuanc…

Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator, discussed this policy on Lex Friedman's podcast. Here's the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm4hb5yNxyE

The policy has been widely misreported as "we don't negotiate with terrorists", which is wrong. The actual policy is we won't make concessions to terrorists.

Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#143
post #86
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She's now an elementary school teacher so really doubt she has anything to sell.

As a father of 3, I can tell you elementary school teachers negotiate with terrorists on a daily basis.

Perhaps it's time I hang up this old keyboard, rally together a ratpack of seasoned elementary school teachers, and swiftly bring an end to the Global War on Terror.

Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#144
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not useless, they bend the curve. Micro harms are everywhere.

>they bend the curve Upwards. Second order effects of schemes like prohibition are much worse than the original problems. It's also not quite analogous to the ransomware prohibition, because it's more akin to a prisoner's dilemma, and there's no inherent desire to pay ransomware criminals in the human psyche like there is to alter consciousness.

> Second order effects of schemes like prohibition are much worse than the original problems.

There are loads of countries that have illegalized alcohol and not devolved into levels of organized crime that the US did. Specifically, nearly every Muslim nation on earth. I feel this one example is way overplayed by advocates of legalization

Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> yes, my Monero nails At $3bn “market cap,” Monero is not a serious problem.

Its max supply is uncapped. The tech and established network are unlikely to go back in the box.

> Its max supply is uncapped

Sure. If it gets bigger, it can be addressed then. As it stands, it isn’t a problem.

Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#146
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> DC doesn't go after these "security consulting firms located in non-signatory states" just precisely because they want to be able to use them You are vastly overestimating the federal government’s coherence and coördination. Yes, we use black hats. Yes, we still jail and sanction them.

Which is straight out of Macchiavelli's playbook. The first thing you do after conquering the throne is to bundle up all your pending atrocities in one and eliminate competition. The second thing you do is slaughter the mercenaries you had hired to win your war of ascension. No reason to leave them around and let the next usurper hire them to dethrone you.

In practice, it typically happens across administrations, i.e. the effect is accidental. (We forget what an asset having a fresh executive every decade makes.)

Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#147
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should make it a criminal offense with severe penalties to pay any sort of ransom regardless of the consequences. Use the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as a model. Even if it means hostages will die or businesses will be destroyed, that is an acceptable price to pay in order to cut off funding to terrorists and other criminals.

Have fun being the DA who presses charges against a mother of three who paid so their kids could see daddy again instead of watching him get beheaded by terrorists. It's sounds nice in the abstract; in practice it's political suicide.

> It's sounds nice in the abstract; in practice it's political suicide.

Depends on how you spin it. I suspect it would be quite easy to spin the narrative on this one. "So you knowingly funded a terrorist group that's likely going to use the money to commit further crimes against US citizens?" or something of the sort. Have some experts testify on that too, preferably ones in officers uniform.

Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm afraid, you are wrong, criminal gangs or masterminds are not that organized in Nigeria

Cool here's a documentary with an English speaking hostage negotiator in Nigeria with family in the other side of the business (talks start around 4:30). I'm afraid, YOU are wrong. My opinion wasn't idle thought but derived from research on Nigeria rather than some weird borderline racist baseless rhetoric that Nigerians don't have this level of organization. https://youtube.com/watch?v=nG09Bo3uvAw

Didn’t vice catch a bunch of flack for over sensationalizing their “reporting?” Regardless I’d be more inclined to believe an actual Nigerian than a YouTube video. That person didn’t say there were zero people doing this, they said it wasn’t likely Nigeria had a widespread and systemic issue with organized crime doing this.

Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#149
post #14

So there's that woman I follow who used to work in hostage and ransom negotiation business, and she's adamant there's no such thing as "no negotiations with terrorists" no matter public rhetoric or legislation. When push comes to shove, side channels and loopholes are inevitably found and third party contractors like her are getting hired. I strongly suspect this too will end up mostly a jurisdiction/accounting nuanc…

>...there's no such thing as "no negotiations with terrorists" no matter public rhetoric or legislation. I've heard this as well. A professor was flying into a less than stable area or Afghanistan and for some reason they were descending just like a normal commercial flight. "What are you doing, we're going to get shot down!". He was used to a steep descent or a spiral to the runway to minimize the risk of getting hi…

Ayup, another example I can remember of is that swedish professor who went ahead and hired services of a PMC to extract her grad student and his family from Iraq[0].

Background: the student vent to visit his family back in Iraq as his town was under an ISIS attack, which is how he ended up getting stuck there.

0. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/how-swedish-professor-hel...

Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>...there's no such thing as "no negotiations with terrorists" no matter public rhetoric or legislation. I've heard this as well. A professor was flying into a less than stable area or Afghanistan and for some reason they were descending just like a normal commercial flight. "What are you doing, we're going to get shot down!". He was used to a steep descent or a spiral to the runway to minimize the risk of getting hi…

Ayup, another example I can remember of is that swedish professor who went ahead and hired services of a PMC to extract her grad student and his family from Iraq[0]. Background: the student vent to visit his family back in Iraq as his town was under an ISIS attack, which is how he ended up getting stuck there. 0. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/how-swedish-professor-hel...

The untold stories from the security department of all the FAANGs from the invasion of Ukraine would take more movies than there are Marvel movies.
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