Σaccording to Tony Anscombe, the head of public safety information at the global cybersecurity company ESET, the answer to the question is: “probably yes".
In his article, o Tony Anscombe from ESET, talks about who ultimately pays the ransom when cybercriminals who stole or blocked valuable data and data from business systems, blackmail them and eventually businesses surrender and pay the amount.
These attacks are called ransomware attacks where "ransom" means "ransom".
Just imagine for a moment, he says Anscombe, that you go to the store to buy something for 100 euro. Depending on where you are in the world, sales tax may need to be added to the checkout and your purchase receipt will show 100 euros for the goods and maybe plus 10 euros for the tax, total 110 euro.
The company that sells the product must make a profit and cover its costs, which may include staff fees, installation costs, insurance, transportation and much more related to its operation.
But when a company is attacked by ransomware and decides to pay a ransom to cybercriminals to regain access to its systems or to prevent data from being leaked to the public or to sell its data to the public Dark web, this is considered a business cost and is a cost that should be included in the final price of the product or service paid by the customers.
So what would you think if in the receipt for the purchase you made you saw that the company finances cybercrime in some way as follows: product 100 euros, tax 10 euros, donation to cybercriminals 2,50 euros? "I suspect, and I hope, that you would challenge the charge and react. I would, however, do it. " he says Tony Anscombe of the global cybersecurity company.
Of course, the companies would probably answer: “It does not matter, we are insured for cyber security risks and our insurance will pay most of the ransom“. This may well be the case, but the company must pay the insurance company that works based on the likelihood of risk when it charges a premium.
That is, if the insurance companies insure 10 companies and one in 10 of them falls victim to ransomware attack, then the receipt from one of these 10 companies will show the transaction of 100 euros, 10 euros tax, plus a donation of 2,5 euros to cybercriminals, paid through the insurance company. The money to pay the ransom ultimately comes from you, the consumer.
According to his article The Hill, answering a question from the senator Mazie Hirono U.S. Assistant Director of FBI Cybercrime, Bryan Vorndran, stated that “our view is that the solution is not to ban ransomware companies from paying ransom“. Because probably, they will end up paying the ransom secretly without reporting to the authorities the fact of the cyber attack.
Apparently this is why the Senate Justice Committee seems to be proposing as a solution to encourage companies to report such attacks to the Authorities and not to impose a ban on ransom payments.
There are many questions surrounding this issue, and one thing is certain: the controversy over whether or not we should pay ransom demands for press attacks ransomware in no case has it been completed. This is certainly a good thing - because with the discussion and the different views a safer conclusion will emerge.
Until then, however, it is likely that we consumers will see prices for goods and services rise so that companies can continue to pay ransom to blackmailers, either directly or through their insurance companies.
"I leave you with the words of Margaret Thatcher, October 14, 1988”Concludes her specialist ESET: "When you succumb to the demands of terrorists, you create more terrorism".
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