Is there a solution to hackers using Bitcoins for ransoms?

[Etanllah]

I'm sure many of you have seen the news about the WannaCry ransomware?

Do you think cases like this will affect Bitcoin negatively in the long run?

Even though Bitcoin is not the issue in cases like this, I feel like Bitcoin gets shown in a negative light. Since these hackers are only requesting payment in BTC this is what ignorant people get attached to.

I've heard plenty of people say things like: "Oh bitcoins...aren't those only used by hackers?"

Obviously these people are in the minority and do not know what they are talking about but it seems to be what lingers with some. I also know a lot of people that invest in Bitcoins, mine them, etc.

My big fear is that the government(s) are going to start trying to become involved to help curb situations like this. Does anyone else worry about this for the long term future of Bitcoin?

The big question is...is there anything that can even been done to prevent situations like WannaCry?

The beauty of Bitcoin is that it's decentralized, but will that maybe be it's downfall too?

[Dude.Lebowski]

I'm sure many of you have seen the news about the WannaCry ransomware?

Do you think cases like this will affect Bitcoin negatively in the long run?

Even though Bitcoin is not the issue in cases like this, I feel like Bitcoin gets shown in a negative light. Since these hackers are only requesting payment in BTC this is what ignorant people get attached to.

I've heard plenty of people say things like: "Oh bitcoins...aren't those only used by hackers?"

Obviously these people are in the minority and do not know what they are talking about but it seems to be what lingers with some. I also know a lot of people that invest in Bitcoins, mine them, etc.

My big fear is that the government(s) are going to start trying to become involved to help curb situations like this. Does anyone else worry about this for the long term future of Bitcoin?

The big question is...is there anything that can even been done to prevent situations like WannaCry?

The beauty of Bitcoin is that it's decentralized, but will that maybe be it's downfall too?

The solution for criminals is easy. Switch to dollars and paypal. 

This is why bitcoin is better money, nobody can seize it from you without a rubber hose.

Run better operating system. Keep backups of data you care about. Don't click on or plug in I trusted links or hardware.

[GetClams.com]

Im going to invent a do it yourself "get out of ransom" kit.  Sell it for $9.95 and make a killing.

[lukew]

Possibly the ability to blacklist addresses so that they can never be used as an input again. Infect a million machines, and you need a million addresses otherwise they will end up getting rejected by the network. Would make ransom attacks on large scale more difficult, and once found to be a scam, address is forever locked so the funds can never be spent. If the scammers are likely to loose everything they get, there's less incentive to bother.

[LTU_btc]

Offcourse it may affect Bitcoin negatively. Bitcoin are already shown in negative light for last few years. Many people think that bitcoin is mainly used by hackers, drug dealers and terrorists. These assholes are using bitcoin only because it's more complicated to track than fiat. But if we compare volume how much bitcoin and how much fiat is used for bad activities, I thing it's clear which type of currency is more dangerous. It's like to compare how many people dies in car accidents and how many in plane crashes.
I'm worried that some governments after recent atracks may start to look more strictly into bitcoin and try to control it. There are risk that some countries may try to ban bitcoin in their country.

[pecson134]

I'm sure many of you have seen the news about the WannaCry ransomware?

Do you think cases like this will affect Bitcoin negatively in the long run?

Even though Bitcoin is not the issue in cases like this, I feel like Bitcoin gets shown in a negative light. Since these hackers are only requesting payment in BTC this is what ignorant people get attached to.

I've heard plenty of people say things like: "Oh bitcoins...aren't those only used by hackers?"

Obviously these people are in the minority and do not know what they are talking about but it seems to be what lingers with some. I also know a lot of people that invest in Bitcoins, mine them, etc.

My big fear is that the government(s) are going to start trying to become involved to help curb situations like this. Does anyone else worry about this for the long term future of Bitcoin?

The big question is...is there anything that can even been done to prevent situations like WannaCry?

The beauty of Bitcoin is that it's decentralized, but will that maybe be it's downfall too?

The intervention of the government will be inevitable if we can't control the flow of bitcoin transaction and its anonimity thus making hackers and especially taking advantage of it bypassing the screening ot scanning of money involved

[ImHash]

Possibly the ability to blacklist addresses so that they can never be used as an input again. Infect a million machines, and you need a million addresses otherwise they will end up getting rejected by the network. Would make ransom attacks on large scale more difficult, and once found to be a scam, address is forever locked so the funds can never be spent. If the scammers are likely to loose everything they get, there's less incentive to bother.

Who should blacklist those addresses? do you see any one blacklisting miners mining their own spam transactions or rejecting their blocks?
There is no central authority to turn to and provide them the addresses to have a wide spread blacklisting in the entire network.
Mixers are blind when it comes to these things unless they already are informed about the situation but I don't see all of them ever willing to do this.
Don't forget about the ability to spend those bitcoins as a miner fee and no one able to track them any more.

[SHAWN-MIDWAYS]

Bitcoin has just being caught in the crossfire with the hackers, you might argue that this is bad press for bitcoin but hitting 150 countries and seeing bitcoin for the first time is on your pc or trending news might give it good advertisement.

The big question is...is there anything that can even been done to prevent situations like WannaCry?

From Microsoft standpoint they have advised customers on using secure systems and regular updates of our pcs

[Mometaskers]

The responsibly falls on the tech people who should be securing the system anyway. Hackers are criminals, they just choose to use bitcoin. Had they been another kind of criminal, they could have asked to get paid in fiat.

Bitcoin has just being caught in the crossfire with the hackers, you might argue that this is bad press for bitcoin but hitting 150 countries and seeing bitcoin for the first time is on your pc or trending news might give it good advertisement.

The big question is...is there anything that can even been done to prevent situations like WannaCry?

From Microsoft standpoint they have advised customers on using secure systems and regular updates of our pcs

It's publicity but I don't think it's a good advertisement. Imagine you never heard of it and the first time you did, you are being asked to use it to pay someone who locked your files. Sure, not the hackee have a bitcoin address, what happens next after payment was made? I believe it would leave a bitter after taste.

Im going to invent a do it yourself "get out of ransom" kit.  Sell it for $9.95 and make a killing.

Well that sounds like a plan. You go you! 

[BillyBobZorton]

The only way out is to improve the security of the systems people are running. If you keep your software up to date, it's really hard to be infected by such malware. What are the odds that a 0 day infects the entire earth? its kind of ridiculous.

EVEN with a closed source software like windows, if you keep it up to date, you keep your firewalls and so on ready, it's pretty hard to get hacked unless you are some ridiculous target, on that case then it's your fault by running freaking windows in 2017 and a sysadmin you should be fired.

[rekinthis]

I'm sure many of you have seen the news about the WannaCry ransomware?

Do you think cases like this will affect Bitcoin negatively in the long run?

Even though Bitcoin is not the issue in cases like this, I feel like Bitcoin gets shown in a negative light. Since these hackers are only requesting payment in BTC this is what ignorant people get attached to.

I've heard plenty of people say things like: "Oh bitcoins...aren't those only used by hackers?"

Obviously these people are in the minority and do not know what they are talking about but it seems to be what lingers with some. I also know a lot of people that invest in Bitcoins, mine them, etc.

My big fear is that the government(s) are going to start trying to become involved to help curb situations like this. Does anyone else worry about this for the long term future of Bitcoin?

The big question is...is there anything that can even been done to prevent situations like WannaCry?

The beauty of Bitcoin is that it's decentralized, but will that maybe be it's downfall too?

It is already affecting bitcoin in a negative way, just think about how much people have never heard about bitcoin before and it was their first time getting some knowledge about it, most of such people will think that bitcoin is bad just because the media wrote some shitty articles about a hacker who decided to use bitcoins... Disgusting. The problem is that media usually neevr shows bitcoin in a good way, the real way, they don't say that bitcoin is beneficial for people to use as it's decentralized and that people don't need to be dependent on banks. The knowledge about bitcoin that people get from the news and stuff like that is that it is used only for drugs, paying ransoms and paying for hitman services...

[taxmanmt5]

I'm sure many of you have seen the news about the WannaCry ransomware?

Do you think cases like this will affect Bitcoin negatively in the long run?

Even though Bitcoin is not the issue in cases like this, I feel like Bitcoin gets shown in a negative light. Since these hackers are only requesting payment in BTC this is what ignorant people get attached to.

I've heard plenty of people say things like: "Oh bitcoins...aren't those only used by hackers?"

Obviously these people are in the minority and do not know what they are talking about but it seems to be what lingers with some. I also know a lot of people that invest in Bitcoins, mine them, etc.

My big fear is that the government(s) are going to start trying to become involved to help curb situations like this. Does anyone else worry about this for the long term future of Bitcoin?

The big question is...is there anything that can even been done to prevent situations like WannaCry?

The beauty of Bitcoin is that it's decentralized, but will that maybe be it's downfall too?

The solution for criminals is easy. Switch to dollars and paypal. 

This is why bitcoin is better money, nobody can seize it from you without a rubber hose.

Run better operating system. Keep backups of data you care about. Don't click on or plug in I trusted links or hardware.

Microsoft has already introduced the patch to control over this foreseen problem about 4 , 5 months  ago but many people still not deployed that patch. Even the multinationals were found ignorant in this respect and found the victim of this virus. The only solution to this is not to quit bitcoins but to make your anti-virus and system upgraded with latest security patches.

[HCP]

Im going to invent a do it yourself "get out of ransom" kit.  Sell it for $9.95 BTC0.01 and make a killing.

There, fixed that for you

[Xester]

I'm sure many of you have seen the news about the WannaCry ransomware?

Do you think cases like this will affect Bitcoin negatively in the long run?

Even though Bitcoin is not the issue in cases like this, I feel like Bitcoin gets shown in a negative light. Since these hackers are only requesting payment in BTC this is what ignorant people get attached to.

I've heard plenty of people say things like: "Oh bitcoins...aren't those only used by hackers?"

Obviously these people are in the minority and do not know what they are talking about but it seems to be what lingers with some. I also know a lot of people that invest in Bitcoins, mine them, etc.

My big fear is that the government(s) are going to start trying to become involved to help curb situations like this. Does anyone else worry about this for the long term future of Bitcoin?

The big question is...is there anything that can even been done to prevent situations like WannaCry?

The beauty of Bitcoin is that it's decentralized, but will that maybe be it's downfall too?

That WannaCry ransomware has already reached our country, the Philippines. The recent attack on the United Kingdom has been very alarming and the threat is not all about bitcoins but the possible harm of this virus to the important data in the nations. And another thing it will give a huge problem on the reputation of bitcoin. But even though bitcoin will not stop to be on top and such kind of illicit activities are just impacts on the development of bitcoin.

[iamTom123]

"My big fear is that the government(s) are going to start trying to become involved to help curb situations like this. Does anyone else worry about this for the long term future of Bitcoin?"

Rationally, governments will really get involved because this is affecting security and can inflict harm to the very backbone of a country. We are already in a technology-dependent era and disruptions can cost millions of dollars in terms of loss and cost of repair. We just hope that authorities would not want to curtail Bitcoin and would instead institute changes leading to fortification of our walls. The recent WannaCry ransomware is only a foretaste of what hackers can do in the future.

[Yakamoto]

Can't do anything, and likely it won't do anything to Bitcoin, for the most part.

Ransomware will always be a thing, Bitcoin is just slightly more effective for the people that design it because they are able to obfusticate their identity more and there is a smaller risk of something happening to their accounts (e.i. Paypal account being frozen).

If people continue to update their system and become technically literate, then it will be easier for people to avoid being hit by these things, although some of it is pure luck.

[Pursuer]

it is the "media effect" and if it weren't for this ransomeware it would have been for something else entirely. they just paint bitcoin in negative light as they please. and there aren't many things that we can do.

the only thing that can negate this is probably the rest of the news. for example when the only thing you hear in media is "bitcoin+ransomeware" then you obviously think bitcoin is only used by hackers.
but when in addition to that you keep hearing "Japan+bitcoin+legal way of payment" and then "Australia doing the same" and then "US thinking about doing the same (I read this on reddit yesterday)" and so on, then the negative effect will be far less.

[Holliday]

Secure your computers and back up your data?

[davis196]

Possibly the ability to blacklist addresses so that they can never be used as an input again. Infect a million machines, and you need a million addresses otherwise they will end up getting rejected by the network. Would make ransom attacks on large scale more difficult, and once found to be a scam, address is forever locked so the funds can never be spent. If the scammers are likely to loose everything they get, there's less incentive to bother.

I hear news tha the Wannacry hackers didn`t get any money from the ransoms.
Maybe they don`t do it for money.
Anyway,the only solution is to refuse to pay the ransom.

[freebutcaged]

What do you care if they're using it to ransom people?

Lets kill or at best shackle all the girls to the ground in the houses so they can never get raped.

Actually many idiots are doing exactly the same thing.

This is the world mate get used to it free will is what makes us human, if not Bitcoin they'll find something else, if not that then something else.

Why are we using Windows anyways, we should start using other operating systems, is Linux good?