[phone_book]

Isn't there still incentive because the data itself is valuable so attacks would continue?

[jawiggins]

Maybe, but it’s harder to profit from it. A firm may be reputationally damaged, but what’s the incentive to cause that damage?

I think the Bloomberg Odd Lots guy wrote a blog post on this: you could attempt to short the stock but a) this leaves a paper trail b) the market might not know about the breach or believe you if you post you’ve done it. IIRC some hackers have tried to tell companies that they are legally required to disclose the breach to their shareholders to force market movements.

[bawolff]

If there was a way to profit from the data that was more than the ransom, wouldn't they just do that instead of asking for a ransome.

Or do both i suppose, just because someone pays a ransome there is no garuntee the hacker destroys the data.

[bluGill]

How much value is in the data. It is embarrassing if some kid gets a D in class, and shouldn't be public - but most of the people who care already know or have ways to find out.