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FBI: "Just pay the ransom."

posted by martyb on Thursday October 29 2015, @10:41AM   
from the backups-just-do-it dept.

Runaway1956 writes:

There is a particularly devious type of malicious software that locks users out of their own computer systems until an individual agrees to pay a ransom to the hackers. In these cases, the FBI has surprisingly suggested just ponying up the dough.

It's not the type of advice one would typically expected from the FBI, but that's exactly what was recommended by Joseph Bonavolonta, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's CYBER and Counterintelligence Program Boston office.

"The ransomware is that good," said Bonavolonta at the 2015 Cyber Security Summit in Boston, as quoted by Security Ledger. "To be honest, we often advise people just to pay the ransom."

https://www.rt.com/usa/319913-fbi-pay-ransomware-hackers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Yeah, it's RT, but I did a search, and that or similar headlines popped up on dozens of news sites. I clicked a couple of them, and the stories match. Try this one,
https://thehackernews.com/2015/10/fbi-ransomware-malware.html

Personally, I can almost certainly afford to nuke and reinstall, unless they get my RAID array. Then - I'd have to think hard.

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Original Submission

• Re:RAID is not backup Re:RAID is not backup (Score: 3, Interesting) by Tramii on Thursday October 29 2015, @04:31PM

  by Tramii (920) on Thursday October 29 2015, @04:31PM (#256092)

  RAID guards against certain types of hardware failure. There's lots of failure modes that it doesn't guard against. Some examples include things like:

  • Human error (deleting files by mistake)
  • Catastrophic damage (house burns down)
  • Viruses and other malware
  • Software bugs that wipe out data
  • Hardware issues with the RAID controller itself

   

  A good backup system should support:

  • Multiple rotating copies
  • Geographic redundancy

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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  Interesting=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
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• Re:RAID is not backup (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @08:10AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @08:10AM (#256377)

  I think I was not clear:

  The RAID would be off-site, and off-line.

  The machine housing the disks will contain a Public-Private key pair, such that I can encrypt the backups in transit with only the public key.

  The sole purpose of using triple-redundant ZFS is to be able to detect read/write errors (and then correct them). If I had money, I would just use tape.

  Parent