FBI's Advice on Ransomware? Just Pay The Ransom!

[PlayStation 2]

The FBI is working to catch them. If you get hit and have no backups, you still have no choice. Trace the payment and work quickly. It's a brilliant criminal strategy really. The reality is cops and robbers are always vying for being ahead. This year it's the robbers. That's how the cookie crumbles.

Eh, I guess I did word it pretty awfully.

Honestly, I never thought of that. Tracing where the payments head to, that's one of the best things America does.

:^)

[Beskamir]

Common sense is usually good enough to avoid getting malicious code on your system but if that fails you better have that handy backup ready!

[patrickjp93]

not if you use the industrial chips that you manual flash with light. IDK if anyone even uses them anymore though

That's expensive ancient tech. I'd be surprised if anyone does.

[Egad]

that is stupid most hackers won't decrypt it even if you paid

 

Incorrect, most of them do decrypt, which is why the FBI agent recommended paying.  Typically they come back on you a couple times, it goes from 500 dollars to 2000 dollars or something like that because the hackers know they have you, but they do decrypt.  They need people on the forums talking about how they did eventually did get the data back.  Otherwise no one would ever pay.

[Photonic]

Maybe the FBI ransomwares are actually by the FBI

[spartaman64]

Incorrect, most of them do decrypt, which is why the FBI agent recommended paying.  Typically they come back on you a couple times, it goes from 500 dollars to 2000 dollars or something like that because the hackers know they have you, but they do decrypt.  They need people on the forums talking about how they did eventually did get the data back.  Otherwise no one would ever pay.

why should they waste resources and if you dont pay then few people will make ransomware 

[patrickjp93]

why should they waste resources and if you dont pay then few people will make ransomware 

Because if they decrypt (which is cheap when you have the key), they have an air of legitimacy and trustworthiness, which means people are more inclined to pay instead of fight tooth and nail since it's pretty much a guarantee to get your data back.

[spartaman64]

Because if they decrypt (which is cheap when you have the key), they have an air of legitimacy and trustworthiness, which means people are more inclined to pay instead of fight tooth and nail since it's pretty much a guarantee to get your data back.

then you shouldnt pay because they will continue to make ransomware if you pay.

[patrickjp93]

then you shouldnt pay because they will continue to make ransomware if you pay.

They'd move onto much more malicious methods. You're damned either way.

[alicskysareblue]

Eat a dick, FBI.

You're the fucks that are supposed to be taking these people down but you're just encouraging them.

Sorry until you have Experience. Working in I.t (your profile says your 15) I'd say you should learn WHY the fbi recommands that companies pay the ransom, instead of dismissing it.

For a business it is way more complicated then just having back up, you having to factor in down time, loss of revenue etc and as someone pointed out what if the virus created a little hidden partition immune to reformats, also what about customer or employee private information ? Was that compromised? Hoe much info do they have ?

Additionally cryptolocker and other variants use 256 bit aes encryption,which are very hard to unencrypt.

[Shinrin_Cole]

Seeing as I don't open anything suspicious, be it email or going on a fishy website, to a link from a bot in twitch chat (durn those bots). But I'd have to take out a loan for me to get the files back, not everyone has 500 to 5000 dollars handy every time their files get encrypted by a guy who doesn't want to work for a living. 

 

That being said, no one is going to be 100% safe from this, even if you try to protect yourself. As said in the post a back up is a good way to keep your data safe.

[Inheritance]

you would think that if a shit ton of drives all started ramming to max reed and write speeds there would be a alarm going off.