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Comment by hnthrow1010 | Hacker News Reader

I love this take because it's almost there but it's narrowly missing the point just to draw a huge straw man. Ransomware is not specifically enabled by cryptography. It's enabled by people providing "money laundering as a service" which is an apt description for cryptocurrencies.

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It’s far closer to the truth than you are willing to admit.

Ransomware is primarily enabled by encrypting your files. How they take payment is irrelevant. No encryption (eg: a universe where AES, RSA, ECEIS is broken), no ransomware.

My position is the fallout of ransomware is enabled by people failing to take backups.

No, this is totally wrong, you didn't think this through. They don't need to do that. They could just copy the files to their own machine, delete them, then send them back when you pay the ransom. Encryption certainly makes it easier for them, but the main thing that enables it is money laundering. Which is the primary reason anyone uses cryptocurrency to transfer huge sums of money.

Could sure, but that’s not how ransomware typically works. Typically, it is a non interactive process that is enabled by automated application of strong encryption delivered via a binary payload. It is encryption that puts the user in danger of malicious intent not the payment rails. Before Bitcoin, LR ukash and shady payment card processors handled this. Cryptocurrency is just a better rail, so good guys and bad guys use it.

Is your problem with the network enabling crime? (Internet?)

Cryptocurrency is not a better rail. In fact it is a worse rail for almost everything. But it is the only rail that currently allows people to do this at the scale it does, due to its operators openly welcoming unlimited amounts of money laundering on the network. This has nothing to do with cryptography or the internet. It is entirely about money laundering. Yes, money laundering happened before, that is not an excuse for these networks to allow it to happen in such large volumes and at such great speed that it is enabling this entire new class of ransomware.

POWERFUL TECHNOLOGY!

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