Ransomware, the best thing that has happened to Bitcoin

[Denker]

Ransomware will make people passionately hate bitcoin and forever associate it with crime. OP needs to explain themselves.

I guess OP is trolling right?
Because I can not believe he is really serious that ransomware can be anything good for Bitcoin.

[Mickeyb]

Ransomware will make people passionately hate bitcoin and forever associate it with crime. OP needs to explain themselves.

Exactly this. If we would start developing applications like this, this would give regulators all the rights to ban us completely.

This is a very stupid idea! Let people use Bitcoin as they wish but don't encourage them in this way or another for what and how to use it.

[ranochigo]

-snip-
I think this virus is detectable by most of the antivirus, so keep your antivirus open folks

There are many variants of this malware and anti viruses are not so accurate. Based on this, the behavior is no different from legit programs till it encrypts the files. Many viruses do not get detected by antiviruses as there are many crypters out in the market which uses a stub and merge it with the virus for it to deter antivirus detections.

[jt byte]

Ransomware will make people passionately hate bitcoin and forever associate it with crime. OP needs to explain themselves.

By this bitcoin is becoming popular and famous in the black way. [not good]
Since its advertised by thiefs, hackers this is bad for bitcoin.
The hacker couldn't accept paypal because we know the chargebacks and what information needs paypal.

[Raimonn]

In my opinion ramsonware is very bad for bitcoin, it could increse price of bitcoin if lot of people want to restore its documents, but these users will not see bitcoin as a good payment system. We need good news related with bitcoins, not bad publicity like hackers stoling your money.

[jt byte]

In my opinion ramsonware is very bad for bitcoin, it could increse price of bitcoin if lot of people want to restore its documents, but these users will not see bitcoin as a good payment system. We need good news related with bitcoins, not bad publicity like hackers stoling your money.

Another bad thing for these people is that if they want to buy bitcoins.
If they start/want to buy bitcoin they will look for an exchange then they are required to submit government documents.
And i think that this makes people more afraid to purchase bitcoin, but yeah the price normally should increase but not to much.

[Blinken]

..
The OP's comments are a tad confusing still. He/she implies that the rise of bitcoin price and adoption is due to ransomware existing...which obviously wouldn't be true.

...

Are you so sure about that? According to the FBI 1% of ransomware victims pay it. So, if there are 10 million victims, then there would be 100,000 new bitcoin users. That is quite a lot of buying activity. According to the FBI they have received ransomware complaints totaling $18 million dollars. One estimate of how much the hackers are making is as much as $300 million. That is $300 million in bitcoin purchases.

[NorrisK]

No way this is good for bitcoin long term.. Sure, some people buying a few bitcoin bumps price, but the effect is so minor to the general negative publicity.

I'd rather see no ransomware floating around.

[ranochigo]

..
The OP's comments are a tad confusing still. He/she implies that the rise of bitcoin price and adoption is due to ransomware existing...which obviously wouldn't be true.

...

Are you so sure about that? According to the FBI 1% of ransomware victims pay it. So, if there are 10 million victims, then there would be 100,000 new bitcoin users. That is quite a lot of buying activity. According to the FBI they have received ransomware complaints totaling $18 million dollars. One estimate of how much the hackers are making is as much as $300 million. That is $300 million in bitcoin purchases.

Around 1.3 percent based on this. Its actually more like 3 million. It doesn't feel right to make people use Bitcoin for ransom. It doesn't make sense at all. You are literally only attracting people to buy Bitcoin and use it once, never again and wouldn't trust that it's a good thing to use it. IMO, it's much better to attract long term users.

[S4VV4S]

Here we go, Bitcoin to stratospheric prices and general public adoption due to the need to get their data back.

What we need now is an app that lets people automatically pay their ransomware taxes.

Not really.
For people to get into Bitcoin and regularly use it, they should be able to have a good and smooth experience, not the opposite.

[jt byte]

..
The OP's comments are a tad confusing still. He/she implies that the rise of bitcoin price and adoption is due to ransomware existing...which obviously wouldn't be true.

...

Are you so sure about that? According to the FBI 1% of ransomware victims pay it. So, if there are 10 million victims, then there would be 100,000 new bitcoin users. That is quite a lot of buying activity. According to the FBI they have received ransomware complaints totaling $18 million dollars. One estimate of how much the hackers are making is as much as $300 million. That is $300 million in bitcoin purchases.

Well that's really bad for these people, they had no other choices.
But kaspersky is offering their free service to scan and decrypt these files.
About the price maybe it can be increased but after these people buy bitcoin they will never get back to use bitcoin.

[var53]

..
The OP's comments are a tad confusing still. He/she implies that the rise of bitcoin price and adoption is due to ransomware existing...which obviously wouldn't be true.

...

Are you so sure about that? According to the FBI 1% of ransomware victims pay it. So, if there are 10 million victims, then there would be 100,000 new bitcoin users. That is quite a lot of buying activity. According to the FBI they have received ransomware complaints totaling $18 million dollars. One estimate of how much the hackers are making is as much as $300 million. That is $300 million in bitcoin purchases.

Around 1.3 percent based on this. Its actually more like 3 million. It doesn't feel right to make people use Bitcoin for ransom. It doesn't make sense at all. You are literally only attracting people to buy Bitcoin and use it once, never again and wouldn't trust that it's a good thing to use it. IMO, it's much better to attract long term users.

Ransomware doesn't only use Bitcoin for ransom payments, it uses other electronic money systems. PCworld says the victims of the TeslaCrypt virus paid in PayPal My Cash cards, and Bitcoins. Other viruses only accepted Money Pak and PayPal My Cash. Ransomware will use other electronic payment systems besides Bitcoin and taint their reputations too.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2923532/in-desperation-many-ransomware-victims-plead-with-attackers.html

The FireEye researchers discovered and tracked 1,231 Bitcoin addresses used by the TeslaCrypt gang between February and April. TeslaCrypt generates a unique Bitcoin address where the ransom must be paid for every infection, meaning that each of the 1,231 addresses represents one victim.

After analyzing transactions involving those addresses, the FireEye researchers believe that 163 victims, or 13 percent, paid the ransom in Bitcoin. Another 20 victims paid with PayPal My Cash cards.

[eternalgloom]

I'm sorry but saying that Ransomware is the best thing that ever happened to Bitcoin is just inaccurate.
Ransomware is one of the more scummy ways to scam people and for that to be associated with Bitcoin can never be a good thing.

[Hugroll]

i actually got the cryptowall virus couple months ago. it locked up all my documents like docx,txt,png,jpeg,pdf and all those file formats. it doesnt really affect your windows though, only encrypts your information files. i didnt have many important files so i decided not to pay the $500 ransom and just reinstalled windows .

[n2004al]

No way this is good for bitcoin long term.. Sure, some people buying a few bitcoin bumps price, but the effect is so minor to the general negative publicity.

I'd rather see no ransomware floating around.

Sure that is good. Like Silk Road. And like the actual other Silk Roads which are active and not yet closed by the Authorities. I wanted to see you if your son, or daughter, or you wife, or your brother or sister are users of such kind of sites, buy and use the pure drugs sell by those only with bitcoin (and this make good to bitcoin), or are victims of your ransomware and must pay the amount of money equal the value of your home. I want to see you if you will be victim of ransomware and the request made to you put you in a debt which must make you to work all the life to pay the "tax" you will be tighten to pay to the owners of ransmoware. And after all to show you my quoted (your) post in order that you finally understand how idiot you are. Bah, even this word is very few for you...

[gentlemand]

I don't think it can be considered adoption in any way. It's traumatic for the people who are victims to it, then they have to undergo the utter grind of obtaining coins which is not super straightforward in a lot of places. They won't be coming back for more any time soon.

[ranochigo]

-snip-
Well that's really bad for these people, they had no other choices.
But kaspersky is offering their free service to scan and decrypt these files.
About the price maybe it can be increased but after these people buy bitcoin they will never get back to use bitcoin.

AFAIK, those were mostly from the cryptolocker and the servers was cracked after a relatively long time. Those who require a document urgently would have no choice but to pay. Those keys were available because of the seizure of the central command server.

-snip-
Ransomware will use other electronic payment systems besides Bitcoin and taint their reputations too.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2923532/in-desperation-many-ransomware-victims-plead-with-attackers.html

The FireEye researchers discovered and tracked 1,231 Bitcoin addresses used by the TeslaCrypt gang between February and April. TeslaCrypt generates a unique Bitcoin address where the ransom must be paid for every infection, meaning that each of the 1,231 addresses represents one victim.

After analyzing transactions involving those addresses, the FireEye researchers believe that 163 victims, or 13 percent, paid the ransom in Bitcoin. Another 20 victims paid with PayPal My Cash cards.

Bitcoin is anonymous which is optimal for such activities. For those payment processors, they have existed for a relatively long time and governments have regulations for them. It does not taint the reputation of those as much as Bitcoin's, where most governments does not take a stance to regulate it.

[dexX7]

Ransomware will make people passionately hate bitcoin and forever associate it with crime. OP needs to explain themselves.

Some years ago, I frequently saw spam promoting pyramid schemes, which were heavily involving PayPal, and it was usually advertised with titles such as Make Money On PayPal!.

Before Bitcoin, and probably even now, PayPal and other payment services such as WebMoney, UKash or PaySafeCard, were often associated with cybercrime, for example in the context of selling stolen credit cards.

I also remember that there were somewhat similar scams like CryptoLocker, though less sophisticated, and in the style of "you are infected! you must pay now", which heavily used PayPal and friends.

However, I've never seen any outcries to ban PayPal, UKash or PaySafeCards as consequence of these scams.

While this might be considered as anecdotal evidence, my point is basically:

You're probably exaggerating, because you're "scared" of the possibility someone may think bad about Bitcoin, but I wouldn't be surprised, if a "regular person" (i.e. a non-Bitcoiner) doesn't even create the link "bitcoin == bad, because scam".

[bitbaby]

Ransomware will make people passionately hate bitcoin and forever associate it with crime. OP needs to explain themselves.

I guess OP is trolling right?
Because I can not believe he is really serious that ransomware can be anything good for Bitcoin.

He is I assume because ransomware just spreads hate about bitcoin and even though it is not yet stoppable I am sure it'll get picked up by antiviruses soon, the best things users can do is take backups of their important stuff in the computer, so if any such viruses do enter, you'd only need to wipe the OS clean, restore your backup and start again, no need to pay any ransom.

[ANdr0id]

I think there was something like this 4 months back but it was an antivirus on your computer.
It was called Hyperantivirus. They claimed to pay you money and btc if you installed and ran their antivirus program. I think it had a timebomb and would hold your computer's data for ransom. It did, infact , have access to your all your files as it was designed as an antivirus. Interesting isn't it. A program designed to protect your computer from what it is actually doing, hijacking your data for ransom.