Cyber attackers asking for $300 in bitcoin

[Yakamoto]

A cyber attack that is spreading accross the world

https://www.axios.com/ransomware-attack-is-an-escalation-of-cyber-hacks-2449233920.html

Attackers ask victims to pay 300 dollar in bitcoin after their hard drive is encrypted.

In your opinion can it cause governments to make the usage of bitcoin illegal as they can't prosecute peoples using bitcoin for illegal purposes?

Even if they make Bitcoin illegal what will it do if people keep attacking computer systems using ransomware? They'll keep doing it and if they really worry then they can send the Bitcoin/never use it outside of Bitcoin-friendly countries and get past their law enforcement (mostly) that way.

Making Bitcoin illegal would do nothing aside from hurt the normal user, which is probably something they would want to do anyways. Plus it would make it much, much harder to comply with demands of ransomware attackers if there were no means to actually acquire Bitcoin.

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[ViceOfBTC21]

A cyber attack that is spreading accross the world

https://www.axios.com/ransomware-attack-is-an-escalation-of-cyber-hacks-2449233920.html

Attackers ask victims to pay 300 dollar in bitcoin after their hard drive is encrypted.

In your opinion can it cause governments to make the usage of bitcoin illegal as they can't prosecute peoples using bitcoin for illegal purposes?

Even if they make Bitcoin illegal what will it do if people keep attacking computer systems using ransomware? They'll keep doing it and if they really worry then they can send the Bitcoin/never use it outside of Bitcoin-friendly countries and get past their law enforcement (mostly) that way.

Making Bitcoin illegal would do nothing aside from hurt the normal user, which is probably something they would want to do anyways. Plus it would make it much, much harder to comply with demands of ransomware attackers if there were no means to actually acquire Bitcoin.

I can agree because if Bitcoin would become illegal, ransomware will go back to using traditional banking system. It functioned really good back at these times, especially in Russia.

[btc_angela]

I dont really know what's the problem with those mentally retarded. I mean, cyber attacks here, cyber attacks here and there and it's like they are doin it just for fun like it's just a game for them right? Idunno ah, but thesr retardeds should fine or they desrve to be imprisoned. And then now they will demand a money from us? lool mentally retarded

We really don't know what's in the mind of those bastards who instead of getting their God given talent to good use, but choose the easy way and try to hijack people and demanded that they get paid. I'm with you saying that they should be imprisoned they deserved it and I hope they will be captured and see who are crying now in the end.

[Maceron]

As some people pointed it before me, this is not new. There is absolutely nothing to do against it, except educating people so that they get better protection online.

[olushakes]

A cyber attack that is spreading accross the world

https://www.axios.com/ransomware-attack-is-an-escalation-of-cyber-hacks-2449233920.html

Attackers ask victims to pay 300 dollar in bitcoin after their hard drive is encrypted.

In your opinion can it cause governments to make the usage of bitcoin illegal as they can't prosecute peoples using bitcoin for illegal purposes?

People like this are the ones that give government an upper argument to legislate against crypto currency in general and they will win the argument but hiding under the fact that they are using bitcoin is not something that can be forever because along the line, they will make a mistake and they mistake will cost them everything that's when they will feel the full weight of the law just like one guy that was sentenced to life without the option of parole.

[ahmadakbari]

I posted this not because of cyber attack. It is not important that what attackers have  done. There are lots of other illegal actions, not only this.
What was important for me was the method of payement. Governments cannot prosecute people when they use bitcoin. Othervise when people use traditional banking system It is easier for governments.
Maybe in future criminals ask for bitcoin from victims for other things.

[Chin Cheng]

why it should cause any difference versus what happened in the past with ransomware?
it's not worse than other attack, and 300 in btc is a joke you really think the government care about $300?
don't make me laugh it like we are talking about someone robbed on the street...

The problem with $300 is that not everyone could spare that much amount if the attack happens in the third world country and that too home computers rather than companies because it is a hell lot of money for some of them.It might be a laughing amount for government but that wont be the case if any individual from a third world country is affected.

[unamis76]

YET another attack... What have we learned? Nothing apparently. Or that companies still do absolutely nothing to protect themselves even after attacks previously occured. I'm willing to bet the attack vector was exactly the same...

[ImHash]

Don't be stupid why do you think last attack aimed only illegal copies of windows operating systems? yeah hackers were so smart to attack people just like that. I am willing to bet after the previous attack thousands of original copies of windows sold out simply because people were afraid of getting hacked and lose access to their important files. no way I can be convinced that it was a random cyber attack only to earn money in small amounts.

[DOGE12321]

I think that many authorities actually like Bitcoin because it's traceable. The real problems will start when criminals use Monero and Zcash and governments see that the funds are untraceable.

That is incorrect. Bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous. It means that it is not exactly traceable. Think about it in this way. When you send a transaction to an address, the transaction gets stored in the public ledger known as the blockchain. Here, everyone can see the transaction. However, all they see is two Bitcoin addresses. They don't and can't know who sent the transaction to whom.

Thus, Bitcoin is not traceable. The reason why these ransomware attacks are asking Bitcoin instead of anything else, is solely because of this pseudo-anonymity.

[DOGE12321]

SIDE NOTE: Why $300? As ransom-ware spreads the asking ransom prices have converged on $300.  I wonder if that has been determined to be the sweet spot? Not too high, not too low.

 

I think this certain ransomware is planning on targeting like personal computers and those small businesses, not corporations, hospitals, and bigger companies, hence the low $300 compared to the past $1000 or more demands. I'm not 100% sure about this, though. Also, I think $300 is the price whereas businesses or companies will be like "let's just pay this ransom instead of spending hours and hours doing backups and restores", it's just that it has a higher chance of the victim paying up I think.

No, the ransomware was originally meant to target business and large corporations. But it began to spread and affect smaller households and personal businesses.

But I don't know about the ransom of $300. I would expect it to be more too. Perhaps they believed that the ransomware would be so successful that it would earn a lot of money from that low price of $300. Maybe victim had a higher chance of paying up because of the low price. I mean back-up and cleaning the entire computer or buying a new computer would require a higher payment.

[groko271]

YET another attack... What have we learned? Nothing apparently. Or that companies still do absolutely nothing to protect themselves even after attacks previously occured. I'm willing to bet the attack vector was exactly the same...

This affected me directly for the first time yesterday as our shipping contractor could not arrange transport of our products. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-28/fedex-says-cyberattack-disrupts-tnt-s-worldwide-operations  ..... it seems a few companies have been hit in Australia over the last couple of days.

it pisses me off that the whole company gets affected because some noob clicks an email link, secondly it pisses me off because these continued cyber attacks + future more sophisticated ones to come are giving bitcoin an increasingly worse reputation. As it is uninformed people currently associate bitcoin with criminals, which unfortunately keep getting headlines in the news..... try and search for a bitcoin good news story in the MSM!!.

silk road, hackers, pedos, guns, drugs etc etc.... Thankfully the power of bitcoin is greater than these shitty stories, but I wonder how long it can keep on sustaining such bad press?

[investinator]

SIDE NOTE: Why $300? As ransom-ware spreads the asking ransom prices have converged on $300.  I wonder if that has been determined to be the sweet spot? Not too high, not too low.

 

I think this certain ransomware is planning on targeting like personal computers and those small businesses, not corporations, hospitals, and bigger companies, hence the low $300 compared to the past $1000 or more demands. I'm not 100% sure about this, though. Also, I think $300 is the price whereas businesses or companies will be like "let's just pay this ransom instead of spending hours and hours doing backups and restores", it's just that it has a higher chance of the victim paying up I think.

No, the ransomware was originally meant to target business and large corporations. But it began to spread and affect smaller households and personal businesses.

But I don't know about the ransom of $300. I would expect it to be more too. Perhaps they believed that the ransomware would be so successful that it would earn a lot of money from that low price of $300. Maybe victim had a higher chance of paying up because of the low price. I mean back-up and cleaning the entire computer or buying a new computer would require a higher payment.

Ransomware has been around before bitcoin and typically will infect your computer from random websites, I've seen people getting randomware asking for as low as $50 paid in paysafecards and other forms of payment cards. The key to these viruses is to infect hundreds of thousands of computers rather than a select few and asking for huge amounts.

[DOGE12321]

A cyber attack that is spreading accross the world

https://www.axios.com/ransomware-attack-is-an-escalation-of-cyber-hacks-2449233920.html

Attackers ask victims to pay 300 dollar in bitcoin after their hard drive is encrypted.

In your opinion can it cause governments to make the usage of bitcoin illegal as they can't prosecute peoples using bitcoin for illegal purposes?

By the way, this attack occurred quit a long time ago. There are other threads addressing the same question that you asked. Just use the search bar on the top-right corner of the page.

As to answer your question, I don't think Bitcoin would be banned or made illegal, but agencies would keep a close eye on Bitcoin from now on. Bitcoin's pseudo-anonymity allows the criminals to escape unscathed as no one can track them. It is not traceable as no one knows who the address belongs to. Plus even if they do ban Bitcoin such criminals have other altcoins such as Monero which is 100% anonymous to rely on.

Bitcoin is not causing deaths like the murders that occur every day in the US because of its gun laws. I am quite sure that everyone would agree that murders are worse than cyber-thefts. If they do not ban guns, then why would they ban Bitcoin?

[btccashacc]

A cyber attack that is spreading accross the world

https://www.axios.com/ransomware-attack-is-an-escalation-of-cyber-hacks-2449233920.html

Attackers ask victims to pay 300 dollar in bitcoin after their hard drive is encrypted.

In your opinion can it cause governments to make the usage of bitcoin illegal as they can't prosecute peoples using bitcoin for illegal purposes?

I saw this topic on NHK world (Japan's public broadcaster) yesterday, they were talking about this issue since Japan has recognized bitcoin as a legal payment method, I didn't see they the Japanese were worried about bitcoin and this issue instead of worrying about bitcoin, handling and protection is needed or educating people to against the virus. it is clear that Bitcoin is only a currency or payment system, not a criminal tool that the government thinks need to be illegalized. In fact, bitcoin is better for against criminal activity and I think the government especially those who have recognized it as legal payment system already knew it.

[hardtime]

As I've said this in other threads, I'm going to be repeating my point when it comes to this entire ransomware issue. The thing is, people are going to be using any sort of currency which is going to be easy to extract money from. I know in the past when my sisters computer was hacked, I know she was instructed (by the hackers ransomware program) to pay in something called Greendot Money Pak, which is a untraceable card which is purchased with cash which can be used to withdrawl money from. When I went to look it up, I saw tons and tons of hackers were abusing this card to try to pull this off. So this issue may be with Bitcoin, but there are probably tons of others which are easier for people to do it on

[ASHLIUSZ]

As I've said this in other threads, I'm going to be repeating my point when it comes to this entire ransomware issue. The thing is, people are going to be using any sort of currency which is going to be easy to extract money from. I know in the past when my sisters computer was hacked, I know she was instructed (by the hackers ransomware program) to pay in something called Greendot Money Pak, which is a untraceable card which is purchased with cash which can be used to withdrawl money from. When I went to look it up, I saw tons and tons of hackers were abusing this card to try to pull this off. So this issue may be with Bitcoin, but there are probably tons of others which are easier for people to do it on

That's true, people prefer the easiest accessible currency. Right now considering the entire currency network bitcoin has got the highest value as well it's can be easily transacted without much of the traces left behind. Just because of this cyber attackers and other hackers ask ransom in terms of bitcoin.

[freedomno1]

A cyber attack that is spreading accross the world

https://www.axios.com/ransomware-attack-is-an-escalation-of-cyber-hacks-2449233920.html

Attackers ask victims to pay 300 dollar in bitcoin after their hard drive is encrypted.

In your opinion can it cause governments to make the usage of bitcoin illegal as they can't prosecute peoples using bitcoin for illegal purposes?

Not directly the biggest issue would be increasing the KYC/AML requirements on exchanges at the point of conversion and possibly limiting or closing down as many individual bitcoin sellers as possible. Kind of like making a banking system and removing barter transactions as much as possible.

[beerlover]

A cyber attack that is spreading accross the world

https://www.axios.com/ransomware-attack-is-an-escalation-of-cyber-hacks-2449233920.html

Attackers ask victims to pay 300 dollar in bitcoin after their hard drive is encrypted.

In your opinion can it cause governments to make the usage of bitcoin illegal as they can't prosecute peoples using bitcoin for illegal purposes?

Even if they make Bitcoin illegal what will it do if people keep attacking computer systems using ransomware? They'll keep doing it and if they really worry then they can send the Bitcoin/never use it outside of Bitcoin-friendly countries and get past their law enforcement (mostly) that way.

Making Bitcoin illegal would do nothing aside from hurt the normal user, which is probably something they would want to do anyways. Plus it would make it much, much harder to comply with demands of ransomware attackers if there were no means to actually acquire Bitcoin.

Simple is that Bitcoin is anonymous currency. In anonymous currency no one can trace the address of a user that's why hacker are using bitcoin instead bank or other address which can be traced. So don't blame bitcoin that it is just a feature of bitcoin. Bitcoin is a global ranked cryto currency which has created his image to the world 5 out 5.

[Proton2233]

Could it be that this virus has several objectives. One of which is to discredit bitcoin. Now the government starts talking about strengthening of struggle against bitcoin as a threat to such crimes. Remember what happened after September 11.