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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Interesting how everybody focuses on the things that they know about: technical solutions, legal solutions aiming at the victims, payment options and so on.

When the real failure is somewhere else: bringing these perps to justice. The fact that they can get away with this over and over again hiding behind anonymity is what enables these crimes.

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The internet is global and ransomware developers operation out of jurisdictions that will not prosecute them. Unless you’re proposing Mossad-style unsanctioned kidnappings and assassinations, any approach that requires apprehending or prosecuting the people responsible is not a real option.

Unfortunately this is significantly harder than you might think. The perps tend to be citizens of countries who happily turn a blind eye to their activities so long as they aren't infecting their domestic systems. What interest do Russia or post-Soviet states have in prosecuting cybergangs that destabilize Western business and infrastructure? I mean, maybe we can create such interests/motivations, but now we are talking about a major geopolitical issue.

If major infrastructure continues to be hit I think we will eventually see this happen, but we absolutely cannot count on foreign states to 'do the right thing.'

I think a big factor here is IT people jumping at the chance to say "I told you so! Triple my budget!"

I agree the problem is that these criminals are sheltered from prosecution.

Shouldn't it at least be possible to identify them, by following the crypto addresses until someone cashes out?

I get that you might not be able to do anything about it if they are sheltered from prosecution where they cash out.

But I don't get why we can't at least, to some reasonable degree of accuracy, say Address A took the ransom and eventually it ended up with Address Z cashing out through Exchange B. Then if either Exchange B or Address Z has anything at all to do with the US-dominated international financial system, you've got serious leverage.

If I'm Coinbase, am I not worried about unwittingly laundering money for terrorists? Don't I have a staff trying to prevent that?

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