
Booming crypto ransomware industry employs new tricks to befuddle victims - pavornyoh
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/11/booming-crypto-ransomware-industry-employs-new-tricks-to-befuddle-victims/
======
PhasmaFelis
> _Now that crypto ransomware is a threat that won 't be going away any time
> soon, there's been a fair amount of debate about whether victims should pay
> the ransom as demanded. Recently, an FBI agent reportedly told businesses it
> may be easier for them to pony up. The comments generated howls of protest
> among security professionals, who warned there's no guarantee the fees will
> ensure the encrypted data is restored._

What exactly do security professionals recommend instead? If you've lost
business-critical data to a cryptolocker, even a 50% chance of getting it back
is worth a lot of money if the alternative is closing up shop and laying
everybody off. "You should throw away your livelihood to discourage criminals
in general" sounds nice, but it's not actually a reasonable thing to expect
someone to do.

------
squidlogic
Regarding cryptolockers, if you have a backup drive on a SAN ... beware.
Crypto ransomware will scan for any attached drives and encrypt those files as
well.

To make matters worse, your DropBox syncing software will automatically
cryptolocker your files stored in the cloud.

~~~
wsh91
Couldn't you use the history function to restore them?
[https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/11](https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/11)

~~~
jagermo
Yes. One file at a time...

~~~
reustle
I'm sure support will do this as a batch for you. It is not an untrainable
request.

------
escapologybb
> congratulates them on becoming a part of the "large community CryptoWall.

There's no need for that, you've already encrypted all of their files and
threatened them with exposure, that's just being nasty for no reason.

Edit: After rereading my comment, it's just occurred to me how impossibly
naive it sounds. These are not nice people, expecting politeness is a bit
much!

------
mirimir
Oh oh: [http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/06/linux-ransomware-is-now-
att...](http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/06/linux-ransomware-is-now-attacking-
webmasters/)

~~~
joesmo
I definitely feel for the regular people getting hit with such ransomware, but
devs that don't have backups are just asking for it to begin with. Not that
it's right or anything, but if you have no backups of your site, it was
destined to be lost at some point whether is be ransomware or
software/hardware failure. With storage so cheap, it's really inexcusable.

~~~
chopin
While storage might be cheap, the costs for maintaining the hardware and
software setup isn't. I think that's the main reason for missing backups. I
maintain myself a backup solution based on a bananapi. Whereas the hardware is
cheap, the overall costs (as measured in time) are not.

------
bigcitymike
"the notice is also notable for its almost pristine grammar"

Might wanna check again. The grammar was terrible.

~~~
oxide
possible sarcasm? tone always seems to get lost in translation.

~~~
bigcitymike
Maybe, but it does explain the general encryption process in an understandable
way, so I doubt it's sarcastic.

~~~
ChristianBundy
sarcasm != satire

I agree with you, but it's still possible that the part about pristine grammar
was sarcastic without the entire article being satirical.

