We do not negotiate with terrorists?
motorhead
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life
Or do we?
Our company was hit with the Cryptowall virus and the cyber terrorists are demanding $1000 to unlock the files. I'm not an IT guy. I'm in operations, so I say in on the meetings. The majority said WE NOT PAY THE RANSOM.
If there is some guarantee that paying the random will work - I'm kind of for it. The cost of replicating the lost files far exceeds the restively small random. Of course - there is not guarantee the terrorists will send the key if we pay.
Life sucks
Our company was hit with the Cryptowall virus and the cyber terrorists are demanding $1000 to unlock the files. I'm not an IT guy. I'm in operations, so I say in on the meetings. The majority said WE NOT PAY THE RANSOM.
If there is some guarantee that paying the random will work - I'm kind of for it. The cost of replicating the lost files far exceeds the restively small random. Of course - there is not guarantee the terrorists will send the key if we pay.
Life sucks
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The key is, making sure you learn your fucking lesson. If you pay or not, action should be taken to prevent a recurrence. I'm not saying go out and spend millions on all sorts of security software that will probably negatively impact productivity as much as it prevents risks, but impact here could be mitigated with some standard backup processes that would also protect your company from many other scenarios. Hell, the investment for reasonable backups is worth it for most individuals backing up their fucking selfies and shit, its certainly worth it for a company. If your internal IT dept can't set something like that up, there's tons of consulting services that will do it for you.
These are merely computer files. It is more difficult to reject ransom categorically when the hostage is a loved one, like a child or wife or favorite stripper.
Obviously none of the assurances are worth anything - but it gives the assholes on the other side a sense that these guys are complying and just want to get the files back.
It's only a thousand bucks.
But - if you guys have IT - get them to work on re-assessing your firewalls. These should be better than a thousand-dollar asshole can break. Hire new people if needed. Next breach could be fatal.
And - as the Admin conducts the payment procedure - give her some wrong info so she stumbles and fumbles (don't tell her anything - she should appear genuine to the asshole). The re-try will definitely provide clues to the cyber-crime folks in Police Dept. I'm very sure the asshole will be caught - right in his basement. He gets max time, event gets publicised and deters bigger cyber crime down the road.
I know the feeling. It sucks more than losing wallet or cell phone. Entire businesses depend on computer data. I'd vote for death penalty for cyber terrorists - no matter what part of the world they are at.
Say you pay the money, how do you know then that your computers are clean, as opposed to still having some sleepers.
I would be going to LE, and I would only pay if it somehow helped LE to track the cyberterrorists down.
SJG
Amazingly, they didn't want to invest any funds in their security. My question was, why did they paid so much for the audit, then toss the results in the trash?
@Dougster Not every company can even afford $1M or else the cyber punks won't have a renewable source of income.
You mean the super creepy guy who eats his lunch alone and is always trying to eavesdrop? Yeah, I'd definitely keep an eye on him
@slickspic ouch, really sorry to hear that. Hope he at least has time to see his kids once more.
I sent you a PM on the subject.