Headley_GrangeSilver badge
"For C-suite execs and security leaders, discovering your organization has been breached, your critical systems locked up and your data stolen, then receiving a ransom demand, is probably the worst day of your professional life."

Third worst, surely.

Second worst is finding out that your bonus is reduced because of it.

First worst is discovering that someone can prove that it's your fault. //

lglethalSilver badge
Go
Paying the Dane Geld
Pay the Geld, and you'll never get rid of the Dane...

What was true so many years ago, remains true to today... //

Doctor SyntaxSilver badge
These guys are just getting ransomware a bad name. //

ThatOneSilver badge
Facepalm
Hope springs eternal

pay the extortionists – for concerns about [obvious stuff]

...Except that you're placing all your hopes on the honesty of criminals!...

Once you've paid them, why would they bother decrypting your stuff? Why wouldn't they ask for even more money, later (or immediately)? Why wouldn't they refrain from gaining some free street cred by reselling all the data they have stolen from you?

Your only hope is that they are honest, trustworthy criminals, who will strive to make sure to repair any damage they've caused, and for whom your well-being is the most important thing in the world...

I think you would be better advised to avoid clicking on that mysterious-yet-oh-so-intriguing link, but that's me. //

3 days
ChrisCSilver badge
Reply Icon
Re: Hope springs eternal
Doesn't matter whether they use the same name or a different one for each victim, the point is that if word gets around that a ransomware group is ripping off people who've paid up, then people are going to be increasingly unlikely to trust any ransomware group.

And at that point, there's a fairly good chance that at least one of the "trustworthy" groups may well decide to take whatever action is needed to deal with this threat to their business model - given the nature of such groups and the dark underbelly of society in which they operate, it's not unreasonable to consider that such action may well be rather permanent to the recipients...