How do hackers collect ransom money and not IMMEDIATELY get arrested?
In: Technology
They use cryptocurrency, which is difficult to trace to a physical location.
I actually just learned today that there exist ransomware brokers who will evaluate the exposure risk of a company being ransomed to see how worth it it is to pay the ransom, and how much. These ransomware attacks happen quite a lot, so these brokers have formed working relationships with the attackers and can be like, listen, here’s how much it’s worth to this company to recover their data and prevent any leaks. So, you should probably lower your ransom demand, otherwise they’ll just put that money toward finding a technical fix to recover access to their systems or data or whatever.
From scam-busting videos on YouTube, as well as things like crypto currency they will also get people to buy large amounts of gift cards or just take out lots of cash, then have them mail that recorded delivery to a random AirBnB address where another person hired as a “mule” will wait outside for the delivery truck, collect it without the AirBnB owner knowing, and then send it on to another handler who will get the money (minus a cut) to the original scammers.
A few items:
1) if you’re a business that immediately gets hackers arrested, the next time you get hacked, the hackers aren’t going to cut a deal, because they know you won’t play nice
2) many hacking deals are handled through an intermediary. I think it’s called black lake or something like that. This company deals with the hackers as a middle man. You give them the Bitcoin, the hackers give them the key to undo the hacks. They check that the key to undo the hacks truly works and doesn’t contain some nasty stuff that will make the situation worse. If all goes well, they send the Bitcoin to the hackers and send you the key to fix your stuff
Everyone plays nice and nobody gets totally boned. The key is to try and not get hacked in the first place
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I once had to pay someone through western union to an address in the Philippines. So good luck arresting them over there
Why are legal questions deleted ?
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