[2020-07-25] Bitcoin Demand Drives $1.4 Billion Ransomware Industry In The U.S.

[bbc.reporter]

However, ransomware attacks have been there before the cryptospace. This might be the beginning of the bull market if there are mainstream article writers making it appear that bitcoin is evil again hehehe.



Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are fueling a wave of ransomware attacks to the tune of $1.4 billion in the U.S. Hackers encrypt the victim’s data and then require the victim to pay a fee in bitcoin or certain other cryptocurrencies to obtain the decryption key needed to release the data. According to Coveware, which helps companies remediate ransomware, in Q4 2019, victims who paid a ransom to receive decrypting software successfully decrypted 97% of their encrypted data.

Read in full https://www.forbes.com/sites/andreatinianow/2020/07/01/bitcoin-demand-drives-14-billion-ransomware-industry-in-the-us/

[o_e_l_e_o]

Another Forbes "contributor" article which is heavy on speculation and light on data. These "contributor" articles are little more than a blog post - they are not reviewed or vetted by Forbes, and do not have to meet their editorial standards.

The articles doesn't provide any data whatsoever to back up its claim that bitcoin is "driving" ransomware attacks. Bitcoin is used in ransomware attacks, sure, but cars are used in robberies. Are cars "driving" robberies? (Pun intended) Ransomware attacks existed long before bitcoin, and if bitcoin disappeared tomorrow, ransomware attacks would continue with a different payment method. They use everything from prepaid cards as ETFbitcoin has mentioned, to gift cards, wire transfers, paysafecard, even premium SMS messages.

[Lucius]

This might be the beginning of the bull market if there are mainstream article writers making it appear that bitcoin is evil again hehehe.

Bitcoin has always been something evil for most mainstream media, because they are controlled by the same people who control the banks, and at the very thought of a decentralized currency, the world turns them upside down. I don't understand how bad news like BTC ransomware can have anything to do with bull run, it can only be the opposite - here I would not agree that every advertisement is a good advertisement.

If people are taught about basic computer security, i'm sure the number will be decreased further compared with strict regulation about spending or selling Bitcoin.

Can we blame education systems for this? Children should come out educated and aware of some things from primary and secondary school - but instead of educated and aware people the system seems to produce robots that operate automatically without the use of a brain. I also did not have any special training in my education regarding internet security, but I consider internal to be a very dangerous place where special precautions apply.

[snipie]

Bitcoin has always been something evil for most mainstream media, because they are controlled by the same people who control the banks, and at the very thought of a decentralized currency, the world turns them upside down.

Totally agree with this. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are considered as a threat for their wealth and their existence as banks and lobbies controlling the economy...
News popping every so on about the same bad usage of cryptocurrencies are just awful

[davis196]

This might be the beginning of the bull market if there are mainstream article writers making it appear that bitcoin is evil again hehehe

Bitcoin isn't "evil again".Bitcoin was always evil,in the eyes of those article writers.They actually don't care about Bitcoin,all they want is to portray it as evil,for the sake of clickbait and more views.
The "ransomware industry" will continue to exist,with or without Bitcoin.
1.4 billion USD paid to the ransomware hackers is just ridiculous.Who the hell keeps important info on his computer nowadays?I'm not that stupid to keep important data on my PC.
The ransomware victims should NEVER pay ransoms.The currency of the ransom doesn't matter.

[Kakmakr]

I wonder where these people are getting their statistics from, because not all of these things are reported to the authorities and those reported are certainly not recorded in one database.   

I really think this is just thumb sucked statistics that are simply blown up to get a huge click bait article to publish. Most of these sites are pushing some agenda and I think the hidden agenda here is just to make Bitcoin look bad as usual again. 

[o_e_l_e_o]

Who the hell keeps important info on his computer nowadays?

Or, even more basic, who doesn't keep back ups? You can get a terabyte of external storage for less than 30 bucks. That's more than enough for most people to back up every file, every document, every photo, every video they have ever downloaded/written/produced/taken/filmed/etc. If you need more, it gets cheaper as you go up - 100 bucks will get you 5 or 6 terabytes. You need zero technical knowledge to plug in an external hard drive via USB and copy all your files to it, therefore rending ransomware inconvenient at worst, as it can be overcome in the few hours it takes to reinstall your OS and software and copy your files back across. Or, with a little bit of knowledge, you can create a complete disk or system image (encrypted, of course!) to make restoring from your back up take only a few minutes. In bitcoin there, is no excuse for not having offline back ups of your seed. In general life, there is no excuse for not having offline back ups of your important data.

The fact that big corporations keep getting hit by ransomware and keeping paying up is testament to how bad most corporate IT is.

[bbc.reporter]

Bitcoin has always been something evil for most mainstream media, because they are controlled by the same people who control the banks, and at the very thought of a decentralized currency, the world turns them upside down.

Totally agree with this. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are considered as a threat for their wealth and their existence as banks and lobbies controlling the economy...
News popping every so on about the same bad usage of cryptocurrencies are just awful

Agreed. This is the reason why I support the concept of the public ICOs as a form of democratized funding for start ups. Also maybe this is why I want Bitfinex to win their case versus the NYAG hehehehe.

[gentlemand]

The fact that big corporations keep getting hit by ransomware and keeping paying up is testament to how bad most corporate IT is.

It truly makes me wonder about a future where your baby has a modem stuck up it the moment it pops out. We all know no company can stay ahead of hackers and security updates often take months or never happen at all. Security to them is an annoyance rather than being at the core of everything they build and push on us.

I'm going to keep my internet saturation at the level it's currently at and not let it get any further. A future where my house, car and food supply depends on the competence of some bored drone in a cubicle is not appetising.

The biggest recent casualty has been Garmin - https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/garmin-down-connect-mobile-not-working-up-online-a9639331.html

If a company that does nothing but that is wide open it doesn't bode well for the slackers out there.