Chinese shopping platform Pandabuy told BleepingComputer it previously paid a a ransom demand to prevent stolen data from being leaked, only for the same threat actor to extort the company again this week.
says someone who’s business hasn’t ever depended on data which has been locked. the idiocy in these comments is astounding. you always pay the ransom, get your business back (which only exists because of your data), then, lock it down. always. pay. the. ransom.
has worked 100% percent of the time (probably a dozen times) I’ve shepherded future clients who have called me for assistance, because all their customer information, vendor data, and billing was locked, and they didn’t have backups. if you’re fucked, you chalk it up to a business expense whether or not you get your data back. you pay the ranson, and you pray. then when you get access to your data again, you lock it down. always. everytime.
It’s bad business to not be honest and trustworthy. If a hacker group is known to always give back the data and not strike twice, they are obviously much more likely to get paid. No one’s paying someone known for ripping off. We see this in company ransomwware all the time. They are friendly, helpful in explaining the breech, and professional. If they were the opposite, they’d be broke.
I mean news like this is the best way to stop people paying, I hope every business that doesn’t pay sends the hackers this article and says this is why
Never pay ransomware. Just write the data off. Learn how to take decent backups
The article says that they weren’t paying to recover their only copy of data, but to prevent it from being leaked:
Backups (or more backups) wouldn’t have helped.
Not ransomware but just ransom to data exfil by a vulnerable API. But paying is still a dumb idea.
says someone who’s business hasn’t ever depended on data which has been locked. the idiocy in these comments is astounding. you always pay the ransom, get your business back (which only exists because of your data), then, lock it down. always. pay. the. ransom.
"Hi, I just sent the ransom payment to the Bitcoin address you provided.
"Now you’ll unlock my data, right?
“… right?”
has worked 100% percent of the time (probably a dozen times) I’ve shepherded future clients who have called me for assistance, because all their customer information, vendor data, and billing was locked, and they didn’t have backups. if you’re fucked, you chalk it up to a business expense whether or not you get your data back. you pay the ranson, and you pray. then when you get access to your data again, you lock it down. always. everytime.
Sure. Make it profitable to the hackers to keep doing it.
Always pay the ransom. Get control of your data. Institute backups. Secure your environment the best that your budget allows.
Always pay the ransom for your data. Always. Everytime.
How is someone getting control of their data by paying a ransom?
The opposing actor still has your data, so it doesn’t really matter how much you pay, you’ll never be able to mitigate that security issue, surely?
i didn’t read the article, for stolen data, you’re hosed. deleted.
It’s bad business to not be honest and trustworthy. If a hacker group is known to always give back the data and not strike twice, they are obviously much more likely to get paid. No one’s paying someone known for ripping off. We see this in company ransomwware all the time. They are friendly, helpful in explaining the breech, and professional. If they were the opposite, they’d be broke.
It’s an interesting dynamic where the ransomware groups have to be reliable and professional for their business model to work.
It was the same with Pirates, if you get a bad Rep with your extortion business you’re just making your own life harder down the line
I mean news like this is the best way to stop people paying, I hope every business that doesn’t pay sends the hackers this article and says this is why