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Ransomware: To Pay or Not to Pay Is Not the Question

By Michel Sahyoun
October 01, 2020

Ransomware has come a long way since the 1989 "AIDS Trojan." Distributed by diskette, it encrypted the file names and directories of its victims. Ransom demands have also come a long way. The AIDS Trojan attack demanded $189 for the decryption key. In 2019 ransomware demands topped $12M.

As the CrowdStrike 2020 Global Threat Report succinctly puts it: "Ransom demands grew larger. Tactics became more cutthroat." Particularly cutthroat has been the advent of encryption cum exfiltration.

More or Less Reason to Pay?

Historically, ransomware attacks were focused on the payoff, not acquiring information. That changed in late 2019.

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