What do paying cyber extortionists and dumping toxic sludge into the Chicago River have in common? A lot, actually! Decipher recently interviewed me on some of the research I’ve published and talks I’ve given on ransomware, incentives, negative externalities and how we, the defenders, can influence decisions.
A negative externality is a term used in the field of economics that describes a situation in which a third party incurs a cost from an economic activity. In the case of pollution, it may be convenient or even cost-effective for a firm to dump waste into a public waterway, and while the action is harmful, the firm does not bear the full brunt of the cost. In the case of paying cyber extortionists, it may cost a few Bitcoin to get data back, but that action directly enriches, emboldens and encourages the cybercriminals, thereby creating an environment for more extortion attempts and more victims. We see negative externalities everywhere in society. This condition occurs when there is a misalignment between interests to the individual and interests to society.
City planners in Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River to solve the pollution problem, and it worked! A similar solution is needed in the case of cyber extortion, ransomware and malware in general. Focusing on changing victims’ behavior by constantly saying “Don’t ever pay the ransom!” isn’t working. We need to move upstream – further up in the decision tree – to affect real change.
The cover image is a picture taken in 1911 of a man standing on slaughterhouse waste floating on Bubbly Creek, a fork of the Chicago River. Bubbly Creek was described in horrifying detail by Upton Sinclair in The Jungle. The drainage of many meat packing houses flowed into Bubble Creek and was made of sewage, hair, lard and chemicals. It periodically spontaneously combusted into flames and the Chicago Fire Department had to be dispatched regularly to put it out.
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