I’m running into some like that. It’s hard to reason with them.

Did you see articles posted in the bacteria found on children’s masks?  It is dreadful.

http://forums.delphiforums.com/opinionpolls/messages/4851/1

$1,661.87 in cats (ROCKETMAN_S) said...

And often totally unprepared for other things - like ransomware when you are running one of the most important pipelines in the US that supplies nearly all the gasoline to the East Coast, and some bunch encrypts all the files everywhere needed to function.

That should be true of any virus/malware that infects a network such that it cannot function properly... regardless of whether ransomware or not.

If you have a recent CD or DVD image of the basic operating system and all programs required to operate that business/factory, you can usually turn up a new machine in 30 minutes. And... if you have all the data automatically backed up into a cloud... then it shouldn't take too much time to entirely rebuild the entire network and get it back up and running. (Several hours max.) Even if you only have one CD/DVD in Atlanta, but need copies in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, DC, Nashville, Norfolk, Charleston and Miami, burning a dozen new copies doesn't take that long at all. Then you schedule flights from Atlanta to each of those destinations and you should be back up and running within 15 ~ 20 hours (worst case... next day)!

Regardless of whether it's ransomware or other malware, one needs to discover how it got on to the system in the first place. How did it circumvent current security measures. For example, if somebody brought it in on a memory stick with the malware on it, then weren't the machines set up to only allow authorized USB devices to be inserted? If they were, then somebody had to have access to an authorized device. That would mean they had inside help and/or lax security concerning the authorized device.

But that gets into forensics which takes time. But the need to get the system back up and running is of utmost importance. So if they have enough spare disks to swap out the infected disks with new disks and re-image them, that's the quickest way to preserve everything and get back up and running again. It's a lot cheaper to swap out a disk than the entire machine.

$1,661.87 in cats (ROCKETMAN_S) said...

I still think that they need to track down whoever masterminded that, even though they did manage to hack back a good part of the bitcoins - grab him, and then give him a good old fashioned Wild West style public hanging - but in the 21st century, hang him on camera and post it everywhere as a warning to others, much like the legend of Vladimir the Impaler, who also left particularly gruesome and stark warnings to his enemies of what happens to those who might dare think to cross him.

Well, lynching is a bit outdated and until his identity can be discovered, we won't know whether he/she is an American citizen or not. If they're not American and currently reside abroad, then getting extradition paperwork ready might take a while as well.

Just look at Snowden as an example, even though we know he's an American, because he's abroad, we still cannot get to him.

FWIW

Speaking of signs for stupid people - I found this. It's funnier to hear the delivery than even reading it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBjelRDKHUk

WALTER784 said:

we won't know whether he/she is an American citizen or not. If they're not American and currently reside abroad, then getting extradition paperwork ready might take a while as well.

Can't we just do like the Bulgarians did, and send an agent in with one of those special umbrellas and do a stealth assassination on a street corner? Then there were the Russians and the polonium-210.

$1,661.87 in cats (ROCKETMAN_S) said...

Can't we just do like the Bulgarians did, and send an agent in with one of those special umbrellas and do a stealth assassination on a street corner? Then there were the Russians and the polonium-210.

Nah... just put them in a Matrix scene and give them a red pill and a blue pill and let them choose which one they want to take.

Just make sure both are filled with cyanide. (* GRIN *)

FWIW

lol.

But if they didn't know that they had a price on their head, they'd just be walking along and suddenly keel over - official explanation would be like what happened to Andrew Breitbart - he just had a heart attack - nothing out of the ordinary to see here, move along ...