[hluska]

First off, that is an excellent comment and again, I love Hacker News. How many communities on the planet will have a Rudyard Kipling poem in their lead comment???

I would have used this stanza as I think it's a little more applicable in this situation:

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,

   No matter how trifling the cost;

For the end of that game is oppression and shame,

   And the nation that plays it is lost!"

As another commenter said, individuals can prevent themselves from being victimized again by starting a regime of proper backups. It isn't as ideal as arresting the motherfuckers and sentencing them to 25 years in federal prison, but it prevents an individual from being labelled a mark.

On the other hand, when the FBI says 'just pay it', I'd argue that it makes all of North America more vulnerable. The end of this game is oppression and shame, and the nation that plays it is lost.

[Quanticles]

For the cyber-criminals there is little or no per-user cost to implement this attack. The refuse-to-pay strategy works when there is some hope of making their attack not worth their effort. To make it not profitable, you would have to convince such a high percentage of people to not pay that the refuse-to-pay strategy is intractable. Instead, we need to rely on the FBI and other organizations to raise the risk of getting caught.

[hluska]

Very well said - thanks!! :)