[sp00ls]

I don't know a single person who would pay upwards of $300 to get their files back if they got hit with ransomware. Hell, I've got something like 10 years of personal files on my machine and I wouldn't pay that much for them. I would bet a lot more people would be willing to pay if the fee was more like $50. That takes it out of the category of 'a lot of money for computer files' for a lot of people and puts it in the category of 'minor inconvenience'.

I sometimes fix friends & older family members computers as a favor and I've noticed that they usually don't really have any files anyway. I always make a backup before reformatting them and usually it includes their bookmarks and maybe 2-3 random files scattered in their 'Documents' folder, none of which are important. Their machines are more like just gateways to the internet than anything.

Through machines moves over the years I'm sure I have multiple copies of the most important ones anyway (keys, etc). If not oh well, life goes on. Shoulda made backups in the first place if they were that important to me.

[SmellyGeekBoy]

> Their machines are more like just gateways to the internet than anything.

I've been in the same boat and how absolutely right you are. Generally everything they do online is tied to their webmail-based, ISP-supplied email address too, making for a total nightmare when they want/need to change ISP.

[RichardHeart]

Sounds like it would be more profitable to just lock out the device than encrypt the files, for its internet browsing value may exceed its file storage value.

[paradite]

It's much easier to recover from lock out (without losing data) than decrypting the file.

[RichardHeart]

You can do both.

[scraft]

Hmm, I'd certainly consider it, most based on not wanting to deal with the consequences of formatting the machine and starting again (installing programs, set up various setting/configuration options, etc.)

I can't 100% say I would, but maybe.

[scott00]

If I got ransomwared I would definitely reformat the drive and reinstall the OS. There's no telling what kind of malware garbage they leave behind. Seems like it would make a lot of sense for the criminal to add you to their botnet, even after decrypting your files.

[scraft]

This is a good point I hadn't really considered - for the massive attacks typically there are pretty thorough write ups about exactly what it does, etc. so that maybe reassurances enough.