[bijowo1676]

This is the way to go.

Instead of paying ransom, and creating a ransomware criminal industry out of thin air, its better to force companies to recover and restore from backups and remove monetary incentive for crime.

and the executives who failed to carry regular backups obviously should face the music

[jstan65536]

Backups were not Instructure’s problem. Hackers using the threat of exposing private information to extort Instructure’s customers was the problem.

[bijowo1676]

Equifax and other companies routinely leak customers PII and financial information.

the only outcome I got from their incidents is 1 year free "identity protection service" which I didnt use.

Should be a lesson for Instructure to have proper architecture and do not store PII they dont need in their processes.

[dessimus]

At least those are mainly going to be adults. In the case of Instructure, there are many K12 school districts using Canvas as well. They are potentially selling lists of underage children along with where they live, and contact info like email and phone number.

These are going to be people with clean credit histories to exploit, and ideal for using as ghost students.

[Eufrat]

Our PII is leaked all the time. I am fed up with various businesses sending me a free credit monitoring subscription in lieu of actually having proper security controls or damages that incentivize viewing the issue as a serious going concern risk.

Leaks are inevitable, but the current situation is absurd. The liabilities and incentives to do anything about them are virtually nonexistent and security is almost always viewed as a cost.

[rootusrootus]

I’m tired of it being my problem to fix. You should be able to know everything about me and still not be able to get accounts/credit/whatever in my name.

[BobbyTables2]

Was it really a problem? Yes, voluntary release of that info by a school would normally likely be a FERPA violation, but this was a criminal act against a third party.

Infrastructure’s motivations must have lain elsewhere…

[erikerikson]

Does that really shield the schools? HIPAA wouldn't care.

[bijowo1676]

educational LMS should not store real patient health data, so thats the problem of whoever designed that system.

[erikerikson]

The question was whether the same transitive responsibility applies to FERPA, not whether HIPAA data is involved.

[axus]

The criminals have better marketing than the disaster recovery vendors.

[ninjalanternshk]

I still believe in the approach taken by Mel Gibson’s character in “Ransom.”

Offer a reward equal to the ransom amount, to anyone who turns the kidnappers/criminals in to the authorities.

[solumunus]

Good luck when most of the random gangs are in countries that, at best, don’t care about this, and often encourage or support it.

[_vOv_]

If they can restore from backups, then there’s no need to pay the ransom in the first place… Ransomware is designed to silently corrupt your backups.

[varispeed]

Wouldn't that incentivise companies manufacturing media and backup facilities to finance ransomware operators?

[JumpCrisscross]

> Wouldn't that incentivise companies manufacturing media and backup facilities to finance ransomware operators?

No, for the same reason fence manufacturers aren't financing burglers.

[bluGill]

There is enough competition that if word gets out you can move to someone honest. At this size you can't keep a secret.

[hughes]

It may be that the ideal number of ransomware operators is non-zero