Of course, because they do have backups. Lol.
So far only the central bank of Sambia had a backup and could just ignore the ransom.
Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
151–160 of 200 posts
Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Cool let's deconstruct:
>Didn’t vice catch a bunch of flack for over sensationalizing their “reporting?”
Awesome ad hominem against the people recording actual Nigerians testimony.
>Regardless I’d be more inclined to believe an actual Nigerian than a YouTube video
And I provide video with actual Nigerians yet it's crickets from you when some guy just flippantly says I'm wrong with no supporting facts. Unless by actual Nigerians you want one to jump through the screen and talk to us... we're going to have to settle for electronic communication. It's what worth noting the Nigerian commenter above denied ransomware related activities but never denied the rest.
>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.
They said what they said, not what you've retranslated them to say. I never said the issue was systemic, but if they really said that then their flippant dismissal was just as invalid as they'd be addressing a strawman.
Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
#153So 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…
I suspect if this coalition of nations actually criminalized paying ransoms, that would go a long way towards closing up all those loopholes. Perhaps that is what needs to happen next.
Until a government organization or close enough public need arises where a new loophole would be created PDQ? Also "close all the loopholes" has a ridiculously poor record in law. On the one hand, people with no incentives, on the other people whose entire line of work is to extract the maximum result of whatever the law happens to be.
Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What would stop them from paying the ransom They can bring their systems back up and operational for less cost (both immediate, but also payroll during the fix, lost revenue from both downtown and reputationally after they're back, and opportunity cost off the top of my head). Your only two options and rebuild on your own at significant cost or pay the ransom. There were long, heated discussions about what to do, a…
> I still think out of principle you shouldn't pay the ransom, ever There may have been a time when a company would act on principle, but I think it's very rare today. You hardly even expect people to do that. It's the world we have made.
All human activities, including things like principles, charity, sacrifice, and duty, are ultimately self-serving attempts by the biological DNA and cultural memes that constitute us to replicate and improve it's standing.
Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
#155So 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…
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.
> that is an acceptable price to pay in order to cut off funding to terrorists and other criminals.
You're offering to increase the stick, what's the carrot for the people/corporation losing everything ?
Making the punishment bigger also means victims have stronger incentives to work closely with the terrorists so the whole thing never gets public or never gets labelled as a ransom.
Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish my health provider had paid the ransom. They screwed up and got hacked and wouldn’t or couldn’t pay the ransom, now the entire clinic has no health records for their patients. My doctor can’t see any health info older than a few years. I couldn’t believe what she was telling me.
It hurts, but it’s the only way we can get the wealthy to take security seriously. Otherwise, to take an exaggerated example, only rich hospitals will be able to pay ransoms and poor people /hospitals will have no records (globally).
Doesn't this lead to perverse incentives ?
If they had to pay the ransom there would be a price set on security complacency, and that becomes the yardstick to use on further investments to harden their systems.
In contrast, losing all patient data is now associated with a malicious attack, so they can hide behind the victim status, the actual damage isn't directly on their bottom line but on the quality of the care to their patient, and they can keep underinvesting in security as long as they have plausible deniability of wrongdoing in the next attack.
Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
Umm, no. A well-known sales technique is inflating your own demand. There's no way to know whether she's telling the truth or doing that.
Inflating what, sorry? Unless you have someone who's been kidnapped you're hardly in the market.
Well who do you think is kidnapping people? Clearly she has hired kidnappers to be able to drum up business for her negotiating services.
Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't they check their backups once every few months from an isolated infrastructure?
If they could check the backups for evidence of an intrusion, they would be able to check production for evidence of an intrusion.
I meant check for evidence of corruption not an intrusion itself. How do you hide the fact that the data is unreadable?
Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
I responded to a comment on hostage and ransom negotiation business. Hostages aren't normally considered ransomware, although said negotiators would have excellent overlapping skill set. Travel.gov has an advisory for hostage taking in your country. I can assure you there are well spoken negotiators in your nation to deal with that.
I'm afraid, you are wrong, criminal gangs or masterminds are not that organized in Nigeria
Except a few billion a year in gift card, business email compromise, and romance scams. But yeah, Nigeria is not really a ransomware source country.
Re: Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says
#160So 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…
Or they could go after them like we went after those damn pirates in the late 1700s.