Re:DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin sta...
by Inhibit on Friday May 14, 2021 @06:32PM
(#27160376)
To your point these folks seem pretty well defined as organized crime. Or possibly foreign military if appropriate.
I'm not sure leaving infrastructure hanging out in the breeze can be compensated for by cracking down on personal liberty, however. Unless you're proposing cutting off international computer network integration.
Re:DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin sta...
by splithalf on Saturday May 15, 2021 @11:52AM
(#27166300)
It’s a scare word and has always been. Like “conspiracy theory” it’s purpose is to stop thought and prevent thinking. It’s easily replaced with real words with concrete meanings. Are mass shootings terrorism? Since it’s widely used scare word to describe generally “bad acts towards groups of people” I think ransomware fits, but so does a lot of graffiti. Maybe it’s better to quibble over terms than to talk about how Bitcoin is responsible.
I don't think it's necessary to staple the term to the action in order to take it seriously. It should, however, be taken seriously as the national security threat it is. For instance, climate change is a national security issue but oil executives, while distasteful, aren't terrorists.
I agree that many folks in the tech community (and especially here, though I don't know if they're overrepresented here) treat technology as platonic. That's not going to cut it moving forward. Technology that enables bad things in the world should be curtailed even if its "neat."