[ExI] quote for the day

[Henry Rivera]

On Mar 23, 2016, at 7:08 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> Bitcoin hipsters please: while I was camping, I heard a Hollywood hospital was hacked and its files held for ransom.  It paid a fraction of the demand, but did it in bitcoin.  Is this true?  If so, does not bitcoin enable kidnapping?  And would not it create special opportunity targets of the families of people known to hold bitcoins?
>  
> spike
> ______________________________________________

I don't think the medium of exchange is relevant here. Whether we are talking about digital, fiat currency, or gold, extortion and blackmail are a means to an end economically for the perpetrators. Would you say gold enables kidnapping? People will  find a way to get gold if they need to to pay a random. In these ransomware cases, the perps conveniently supply links to educational materials on Bitcoin and to vendors for exchanging. They don't need to target those with fat Bitcoin wallets to get paid. I saw a Newshour story on a grandma who learned Bitcoin quickly to unlock her PC, which stored pics of her grandkids, after getting infected with ransomware. 
Respectfully,
-Henry
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