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Rockstar Games Hacked, Hackers Threaten a Massive Data Leak If Not Paid Ransom

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Re: Rockstar Games Hacked, Hackers Threaten a Massive Data Leak If Not Paid Ransom

#41
post #19
post #15

Coincidentally and Interestingly, again, I was reading an old thread from 2015 titled - ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway The top comment says - "NEVER EVER PAY RANSOM MONEY. Please. Even if your business will suffer it will suffer a lot more if you do pay since now it is known you'll cave. Also: you are making the problem larger for others." The top response to that comment says - "From their…

Most hackers actually keep their promises if paid the ransom, nowadays. It sounds perverse but the incentives require it: if payment didn't bring resolution, no one would pay. As a result, all of the big gangs avoid scamming.

Seems like there is an achilles heel for this business model: A "good guy" could start hacking companies, demand ransom while pretending to be one of the gangs, and then deliberately continuing the attack after the ransom is paid. Precisely to destroy this business model. The gangs would be fuming but there would be nothing they could do? Apart from trying to track down the "good guy" or introducing some sort of (cryptography based or whatever) proof-system that a hack was made by them?

Re: Rockstar Games Hacked, Hackers Threaten a Massive Data Leak If Not Paid Ransom

#42
post #36

Rockstar Games Hacked, Hackers Threaten a Massive Data Leak If Not Paid Ransom This is just my opinion but that is not much of a threat and I think they should ignore it. Rockstars social platform has always had abhorrent security and players have always been able to easily doxx one another, know where other players live, boot each other out of games to the point of requiring multiple mod-menus just to be in a multi-…

[deleted]

Re: Rockstar Games Hacked, Hackers Threaten a Massive Data Leak If Not Paid Ransom

#43
I was in federal prison with Sebastien Raoult, one of the ShinyHunters guys. We were in the same unit and talked regularly.

I was about mid-way through my bid when another inmate told me "new guy in B3 is a another hacker." I got really excited—I'd have someone to talk shop with, at the very least.

My takeaway from him was that they're a bunch of contemporary "script kiddies" with a lot of time on their hands.

This tracks.

Re: Rockstar Games Hacked, Hackers Threaten a Massive Data Leak If Not Paid Ransom

#44
post #41
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most hackers actually keep their promises if paid the ransom, nowadays. It sounds perverse but the incentives require it: if payment didn't bring resolution, no one would pay. As a result, all of the big gangs avoid scamming.

Seems like there is an achilles heel for this business model: A "good guy" could start hacking companies, demand ransom while pretending to be one of the gangs, and then deliberately continuing the attack after the ransom is paid. Precisely to destroy this business model. The gangs would be fuming but there would be nothing they could do? Apart from trying to track down the "good guy" or introducing some sort of (cry…

This is an interesting thought. I'm waiting to see responses to it.

Re: Rockstar Games Hacked, Hackers Threaten a Massive Data Leak If Not Paid Ransom

#45
post #15

Coincidentally and Interestingly, again, I was reading an old thread from 2015 titled - ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway The top comment says - "NEVER EVER PAY RANSOM MONEY. Please. Even if your business will suffer it will suffer a lot more if you do pay since now it is known you'll cave. Also: you are making the problem larger for others." The top response to that comment says - "From their…

> "NEVER EVER PAY RANSOM MONEY. Please. Even if your business will suffer it will suffer a lot more if you do pay since now it is known you'll cave. Also: you are making the problem larger for others."

These days, companies try to mitigate the reputational harm associated with paying the ransom by instead paying security firms that "specialize in ransomware recovery" and claim to have "proprietary trade secret means of decrypting their clients' files". These firms always just happen to charge more than the cost of the ransom for their services. They then provide a non-itemized receipt, and both parties walk away happy and without having to admit to anything. Here's a good article on this practice if you're interested. https://features.propublica.org/ransomware/ransomware-attack...

Re: Rockstar Games Hacked, Hackers Threaten a Massive Data Leak If Not Paid Ransom

#46

I honestly expected the demand to be "Release GTA 6 soon or else we will". ...The fact that they're just demanding money is a little disappointing. ;-)

I know you're joking, but the game will be released eventually anyway.

Re: Rockstar Games Hacked, Hackers Threaten a Massive Data Leak If Not Paid Ransom

#49
post #43

I was in federal prison with Sebastien Raoult, one of the ShinyHunters guys. We were in the same unit and talked regularly. I was about mid-way through my bid when another inmate told me "new guy in B3 is a another hacker." I got really excited—I'd have someone to talk shop with, at the very least. My takeaway from him was that they're a bunch of contemporary "script kiddies" with a lot of time on their hands. This t…

And then they handed out free beer in the Paulaner Garten
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