> Unfortunately, putting the onus on risk adverse organizations like hospitals and governments to validate the AV changes means they just won't get pushed and will be chronically exposed.
Being chronically exposed may be the right call, in the same way that Roman cities didn't have walls.
Compare this perspective from Matt Levine:
https://archive.is/4AvgO
> So for instance if you run a ransomware business and shut down, like, a marketing agency or a dating app or a cryptocurrency exchange until it pays you a ransom in Bitcoin, that’s great, that’s good money. A crime, sure, but good money. But if you shut down the biggest oil pipeline in the U.S. for days, that’s dangerous, that’s a U.S. national security issue, that gets you too much attention and runs the risk of blowing up your whole business. So:
>> In its own statement, the DarkSide group hinted that an affiliate may have been behind the attack and that it never intended to cause such upheaval.
>> In a message posted on the dark web, where DarkSide maintains a site, the group suggested one of its customers was behind the attack and promised to do a better job vetting them going forward.
>> “We are apolitical. We do not participate in geopolitics,” the message says. “Our goal is to make money and not creating problems for society. From today, we introduce moderation and check each company that our partners want to encrypt to avoid social consequences in the future.”
> If you want to use their ransomware software to do crimes, apparently you have to submit a resume demonstrating that you are good at committing crimes. (“Hopeful affiliates are subject to DarkSide’s rigorous vetting process, which examines the candidate’s ‘work history,’ areas of expertise, and past profits among other things.”) But not too good! The goal is to bring a midsize company to its knees and extract a large ransom, not to bring society to its knees and extract terrible vengeance.
https://archive.is/K9qBm
> We have talked about this before, and one category of crime that a ransomware compliance officer might reject is “hacks that are so big and disastrous that they could call down the wrath of the US government and shut down the whole business.” But another category of off-limits crime appears to be “hacks that are so morally reprehensible that they will lead to other criminals boycotting your business.”
>> A global ransomware operator issued an apology and offered to unlock the data targeted in a ransomware attack on Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, a move cybersecurity experts say is rare, if not unprecedented, for the infamous group.
>> LockBit’s apology, meanwhile, appears to be a way of managing its image, said [cybersecurity researcher Chester] Wisniewski.
>> He suggested the move could be directed at those partners who might see the attack on a children’s hospital as a step too far.
> If you are one of the providers, you have to choose your hacker partners carefully so that they do the right amount of crime: You don’t want incompetent or unambitious hackers who can’t make any money, but you also don’t want overly ambitious hackers who hack, you know, the US Department of Defense, or the Hospital for Sick Children. Meanwhile you also have to market yourself to hacker partners so that they choose your services, which again requires that you have a reputation for being good and bold at crime, but not too bold. Your hacker partners want to do crime, but they have their limits, and if you get a reputation for murdering sick children that will cost you some criminal business.