If they wanted to be paid to steal credentials they should have gotten hired as a red team.
The formulation (3rd conditional) makes it clear the author is aware they're speculating.
> This [the dump is worthless] is entirely incorrect
Which isn't telling us why (the dump is valuable). You say that there's a legal ban on ransom, so the ban supposedly reduces market value. Black market participants evade bans, there is a black market value which clearly is the prime market for such loot. You write "it is very probable this data contains credentials" which is plausible, but the article you linked mentions logs and configs, not credentials. Maybe (before you point it out: that is also speculation) there were no credentials in the first place (dump was of low-value), or the hackers filtered them out for later use (seller filleted the fish), either way the resulting merchandise is of low value.
If the author had meant to convey speculation, their sentence would have included a modal verb or expression for speculation.
That’s a significant semantic shift from “have even been considering a ban“.
Never pay the ransom...ever.
Paying the ransom only funds the operation, prompting growth and incentives
This is entirely incorrect and just speculation.
Most likely reason for not paying up is that law enforcement (involved in this case as well) does not like it and have even been considering a ban on ransom payments. This in no way implies this data has no value, it is very probable this data contains credentials (Citrix appliances) and might allow future compromises unless Boeing improves their security posture.
- https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/a-huge-hoard-of-boein...
- https://hbr.org/2023/08/how-a-federal-ban-on-ransomware-paym...