San Francisco Metro System Hacked with Ransomware [Paid $70,000 in Bitcoin]

[Junko]

For sure they are going to blame bitcoin. This things really makes bitcoin so bad. But bitcoin has nothing to do with this mess. This is just a bridge to tranfer funds or the ransom. Its the fault of the San Francisco Metro System in the first place. If they have a better security., this is not going to happen.

Yeah, it's like blaming the ransom cash that is demanded when a kidnapper kidnaps a victim. It's not the cash's fault. No one ever blames the ransom money when a kidnapping crime occurs.

It's as if Bitcoin is the only guilty party involved in the crime and the actual criminal(s) are overlooked and not even given a second thought.

[cpfreeplz]

No idea how you wouldn't notice that everything you need is being encrypted as you go but I guess it hasn't ever happened to me. 70k. Wow. I guess they had them by the proverbial balls eh?

[Wind_FURY]

Why do some people still do not see that this is just one of the many use cases of Bitcoin? Moving value easily across borders without the use banks is the main contribution of the technology. Why not embrace it and accept that bad things do happen with or without Bitcoin.

[Xester]

This is not a bad thing to bitcoin but to the users who use it in illicit activities. With the events that had happened the government around the globe might end up regulating the use of bitcoin, creating poilicies and other laws including agencies to monitor how online currencies including cryptocurrencies moves. Soon bitcoin will be under the eyes of the government, taxable and monitored.

[yayayo]

I'm surprised that they actually paid the ransom. This exemplifies the incompetence of the officials in maintaining and operating critical infrastructure. The operators of the system should have paid it out of their own private pockets and then being kicked out of public service for lifetime.

Of course it can be bad for the public perception of Bitcoin, because a lot of people are unable to differentiate and unwilling to blame themselves for gross negligence. Instead of blaming the hackers and the officials, dumb journalists will quickly point to Bitcoin, because it is another new thing they don't understand.

ya.ya.yo!

[SmartIphone]

Recently the San Francisco Metro System got Hacked with Ransomware resulting in free rides.

It is yet not clear exactly who was responsible for the attack (besides a pseudonym "Andy Saolis"), but according to local media reports, the agency's computers were being held by ransomware until the MUNI paid the equivalent of more than $73,000 in Bitcoin.

What do you think guys?
Isn't it bad for the bitcoin to be known as a bad thing in our lives?
*If it was posted before move to the correct board.

This is good and bad for bitcoin.

It`s bad becasue hackers use it and it`s good for the same reason. Just kidding.

By the way,what exactly is a ransomware?Malware that asks for ransome?

Well the bad thing has more effect rather than the good thing because people will have in their mind the dirty bitcoin not the good bitcoin.
What ransomware is? It is a software (malware/virus/etc..) which encrypts your all data in PC and asks you to pay the hacker in bitcoin in order to get the decryption key and get back your files!

[rizkyhiw]

Recently the San Francisco Metro System got Hacked with Ransomware resulting in free rides.

It is yet not clear exactly who was responsible for the attack (besides a pseudonym "Andy Saolis"), but according to local media reports, the agency's computers were being held by ransomware until the MUNI paid the equivalent of more than $73,000 in Bitcoin.

What do you think guys?
Isn't it bad for the bitcoin to be known as a bad thing in our lives?
*If it was posted before move to the correct board.

This is good and bad for bitcoin.

It`s bad becasue hackers use it and it`s good for the same reason. Just kidding.

By the way,what exactly is a ransomware?Malware that asks for ransome?

Well the bad thing has more effect rather than the good thing because people will have in their mind the dirty bitcoin not the good bitcoin.
What ransomware is? It is a software (malware/virus/etc..) which encrypts your all data in PC and asks you to pay the hacker in bitcoin in order to get the decryption key and get back your files!

oh i think a lot of cases like this happened out there
make bitcoin popular as evil currency to make a ransomware transaction
this is just another bitcoin abuse , it's normal i think
as in paypal there is a feature called dispute and chargeback and they frequently misuse it too for scam attempts.

[The_Dark_Knight]

This is not a bad thing to bitcoin but to the users who use it in illicit activities. With the events that had happened the government around the globe might end up regulating the use of bitcoin, creating poilicies and other laws including agencies to monitor how online currencies including cryptocurrencies moves. Soon bitcoin will be under the eyes of the government, taxable and monitored.

Currently except for a worldwide ban there is not much governments of the world can do to stop bitcoin, in fact a ban on bitcoin may even help adoption grow like what happened to drugs.

[Swisscoinex]

This is not a bad thing to bitcoin but to the users who use it in illicit activities. With the events that had happened the government around the globe might end up regulating the use of bitcoin, creating poilicies and other laws including agencies to monitor how online currencies including cryptocurrencies moves. Soon bitcoin will be under the eyes of the government, taxable and monitored.

Currently except for a worldwide ban there is not much governments of the world can do to stop bitcoin, in fact a ban on bitcoin may even help adoption grow like what happened to drugs.

It's not like any ban on bitcoin is technically enforceable, they can hurt exchanges though.

[Sithara007]

Very effective anti-virus packages are available for as little as $10 (purchased one just last month from Amazon). Yet, the San Francisco Metro decided that they are too expensive. I guess now they are too happy to pay 7,000x that amount.

[BitcoinHodler]

Very effective anti-virus packages are available for as little as $10 (purchased one just last month from Amazon). Yet, the San Francisco Metro decided that they are too expensive. I guess now they are too happy to pay 7,000x that amount.

no amount of antivirus protection can protect against all the attacks and when it comes to a system with many people accessing it, the problem becomes bigger. because when you are the only user of a computer you can always be careful about what you do but when multiple people have access only one person is enough to be targeted for the infection it can be an email or other methods the hackers use to infect the whole system through an idiotic employee.

[Kprawn]

It is bad for Bitcoin. We had visitors last week, and the husband did not know that I am a Bitcoin enthusiast. He started to tell me that he lost

all his Holiday videos and pics, due to some virus that blocked his files and then they wanted.. "something called Bitcoin" to unlock his files. I

sat their red faces, because he blamed this "Bitcoin" technology for what happened to him. I explained to him what Bitcoin was, and that the

technology was not to be blamed for the hack, but he did not want to hear anything about Bitcoin, because he blamed it for his loss.  

Even bitcoin get the famous because the hacker information lost, we can see how the fiat system are weeks against hackers, for one side i do see bitcoin as revolutionary currencie, but for other side now hackers can get their money without be traced, this makes bitcoin a big problem, but those big companies should think into a way to protect their system, improve the security, instead of being paying to hackers, but they dont learn security its the main problem, and where they have to invest.

Wrong, Bitcoin can be traced, even if you run it through a mixer service. The tx's are logged in the Blockchain forever. The authorities just have to

subpoena the mixer services for the information. It is a lengthy procedure, so they will not do that for every little hack. The people that used the

Silkroad site, also thought they were anonymous, and then look what happened to Ross.

[Red Fish]

Ransomware will attack more and more via various ways, even when you install free software, you can not be safe from ransomware. I remember even if you install through servers, you can get ransomware.

[ebliever]

When someone is victimized like this, they don't hate bitcoin. They loath it, with a visceral kind of disgust that prevents their ever seeing it as something they would choose to use. It is the tool of their enemy and persecuter.

So if the bitcoin community wants to survive and thrive, we need to figure out how to destroy the ability of ransomware hackers to utilize bitcoin. Either that or track the hackers down and make them wish to God they had turned themselves into the police rather than facing vigilante justice designed to ensure that no one ever makes the same choice they made.

[QuestionAuthority]

When someone is victimized like this, they don't hate bitcoin. They loath it, with a visceral kind of disgust that prevents their ever seeing it as something they would choose to use. It is the tool of their enemy and persecuter.

So if the bitcoin community wants to survive and thrive, we need to figure out how to destroy the ability of ransomware hackers to utilize bitcoin. Either that or track the hackers down and make them wish to God they had turned themselves into the police rather than facing vigilante justice designed to ensure that no one ever makes the same choice they made.

Yes, savage vigilante justice because that's what god uses against us. Spoken like a true Christian. If we don't agree with them, burn them at the stake, stone them or wage war against them.

[The_Dark_Knight]

Very effective anti-virus packages are available for as little as $10 (purchased one just last month from Amazon). Yet, the San Francisco Metro decided that they are too expensive. I guess now they are too happy to pay 7,000x that amount.

They probably spent money on that, the problem like always resides with the user, probably a dumb employee opened an email or inserted an infected usb and that is why everything happen, I don't see why regular employees have access to computers with access to the Internet because I don't think the San Francisco metro needs to have its employees connected to the Internet to perform their job.

[Wind_FURY]

Very effective anti-virus packages are available for as little as $10 (purchased one just last month from Amazon). Yet, the San Francisco Metro decided that they are too expensive. I guess now they are too happy to pay 7,000x that amount.

What? That is a very simplistic way of looking at things. Almost all Windows users have bought into the scam of antivirus software, yes? Then why are a big percentage of Windows users still a victim of hackers, malware, viruses, trojans, etc...?

Did you not think that the whole antivirus industry could be a scam? Seeing how the world works today, it could be.

[ebliever]

When someone is victimized like this, they don't hate bitcoin. They loath it, with a visceral kind of disgust that prevents their ever seeing it as something they would choose to use. It is the tool of their enemy and persecuter.

So if the bitcoin community wants to survive and thrive, we need to figure out how to destroy the ability of ransomware hackers to utilize bitcoin. Either that or track the hackers down and make them wish to God they had turned themselves into the police rather than facing vigilante justice designed to ensure that no one ever makes the same choice they made.

Yes, savage vigilante justice because that's what god uses against us. Spoken like a true Christian. If we don't agree with them, burn them at the stake, stone them or wage war against them.

Sorry, that was intemperate, wasn't it? I should not have encouraged vigilante action. It's just that I don't have much confidence in secular western judicial systems and their coddling of criminals. (In the United States, for example, the government is so far off the rails of the Constitution that there is no meaningful legitimate government to honor per Romans 13 without dishonoring the Constitution, which is supposed to be our highest human authority.)

But on the flip side you make it sound ("don't agree with them") as if it is just a matter of opinion that what they are doing is wrong, such that it's just intolerant bigots who would lift a finger against them. If we were arguing about what to put on a pizza that would be a matter of opinion. By contrast these are clearly immoral criminal acts of theft and destruction of property.

So I'll moderate my remarks and just ask that if and when authorities catch up with them, that they require the criminals to provide full restitution plus 20% for all the time and money and headaches involved in their activities. They should also be required to personally apologize to any of their victims who is willing to give them a hearing.

[QuestionAuthority]

When someone is victimized like this, they don't hate bitcoin. They loath it, with a visceral kind of disgust that prevents their ever seeing it as something they would choose to use. It is the tool of their enemy and persecuter.

So if the bitcoin community wants to survive and thrive, we need to figure out how to destroy the ability of ransomware hackers to utilize bitcoin. Either that or track the hackers down and make them wish to God they had turned themselves into the police rather than facing vigilante justice designed to ensure that no one ever makes the same choice they made.

Yes, savage vigilante justice because that's what god uses against us. Spoken like a true Christian. If we don't agree with them, burn them at the stake, stone them or wage war against them.

Sorry, that was intemperate, wasn't it? I should not have encouraged vigilante action. It's just that I don't have much confidence in secular western judicial systems and their coddling of criminals. (In the United States, for example, the government is so far off the rails of the Constitution that there is no meaningful legitimate government to honor per Romans 13 without dishonoring the Constitution, which is supposed to be our highest human authority.)

But on the flip side you make it sound ("don't agree with them") as if it is just a matter of opinion that what they are doing is wrong, such that it's just intolerant bigots who would lift a finger against them. If we were arguing about what to put on a pizza that would be a matter of opinion. By contrast these are clearly immoral criminal acts of theft and destruction of property.

So I'll moderate my remarks and just ask that if and when authorities catch up with them, that they require the criminals to provide full restitution plus 20% for all the time and money and headaches involved in their activities. They should also be required to personally apologize to any of their victims who is willing to give them a hearing.

Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you were from America. You're response is perfectly understandable then.

[bitcointalk]

Thanks for sharing, OP.