Bandits

Net Security calmly whacking the beast of hackery. . . or something like that.

From the New York Times:

SAN FRANCISCO — Hackers are discovering that it is far more profitable to hold your data hostage than it is to steal it.

A decade-old internet scourge called ransomware went mainstream on Friday when cybercriminals seized control of computers around the world, from the delivery giant FedEx in the United States to Britain’s public health system, universities in China and even Russia’s powerful Interior Ministry.

Oh great.

It would seem that things like this are getting more and more common, and will become an increasingly severe problem.  All we can do, it seems, is to be vigilant and hope that technology to counter such things stays apace, which it only does barely.  Today, and probably all week along, all sorts of companies and individuals will be paying ransom to recover their computers, basically.

Who are they, and where do they come from?  They aren't easily identifiable, like Pancho Villa or Baby Face Nelson.  They're more like vikings of old, or the endless groups of roaming bands that once rode out of the east. 

An example, I guess, of how the more things change, the more they stay the same, or close to it.