The value of not paying cyber extortionists

By Erin Richey

According to Sorin Mustaca, product manager for anti-virus company Avira GMBH, most extortionists negotiate in good faith.

“In general, it is not common that the cybercriminals don’t keep their promise. They keep their promise because they want the next victim to pay,” wrote Mustaca in an email interview.

He added, “The information we have about this phenomenon is very, very scarce. People are afraid to tell and, I think, also ashamed.”

[…]

But Mustaca wrote that this is the reason not to pay: “If someone pays, even if it is $1, the more victims [extortionists] will make.”

[…]

Most victims, Mustaca wrote, simply reinstall their operating systems without retrieving any data. If an organization has no plan in place and hasn’t prepared for the possibility of data loss, the results can be devastating.