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Paying Hacker Extortion

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the bad-place-to-be dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A friend works as CIO at a medium sized publicly traded company. The company was contacted by a hacking group and told to pay $100,000 to prevent their company from being hacked/attacked. They actually paid the extortion (told authorities after). The authorities said the company could be charged with supporting Terrorists. Seeing that most publicly known hacks are costing companies this size nearly a million dollars, Is this supporting terrorists or supporting stockholders?"

8 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Here's a thought by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about hiring someone who actually has some idea about security. THAT is supporting stockholders.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:Here's a thought by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It does seem like $100k spent on security would have longer benefits than one payoff. For that matter, maybe a $100k insurance policy would be a better investment.

  2. Re:And now by odin84gk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They will get asked for money on a yearly basis.

  3. Re:How exactly did they pay them? by melikamp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is utter BS. I bet it was the execs themselves who stole the money, probably long before they were "contacted by hackers". If it looks and smells like The Big Lebowski...

  4. Re:everyone loses by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, it doesn't. Even IF the money would go to Al Qaida itself, the act would have nothing to do with terrorism. It is blackmail.

    Do not confuse one crime with another. Copyright infringement is not theft. Blackmail is not terrorism.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  5. Re:everyone loses by pclminion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Quit diluting the meaning of the word "terror." Terror is fearing you might be blown into bloody pieces while standing in line at a sandwich shop. Terror is fearing your elementary school kid will die a fiery death in an exploding school bus. Terror is wondering whether the building you work in is going to be on the receiving end of a trans-continental jet liner moving 500 MPH. These things are terrifying.

    We already have words for the sort of thing the article is talking about: extortion, blackmail, etc.

  6. Re:And now by dcollins · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He already said he wants to pay trillions. He preemptively out-crazied you by more than 6 orders of magnitude.

    --
    We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
  7. Re:everyone loses by digitig · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think the response of the victims of the 9/11 attacks would likely have been terror. I've been working in a place where the IT department was dealing with a cracking attack, and nobody was screaming or throwing themselves from windows.

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