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M Lucky's avatar

The China Virus...my mom was 93 when it started. She called it the Red Bug from the start.

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Gilgamech's avatar

There are motives for ransomware attacks that are merely criminal. However while true that is excellent cover for a state actor to target a Beltway health company for leverage.

On balance though I would say a state actor would not expose itself through demanding a ransom and would simply quietly walk away with the data.

This is not to preclude a hybrid scenario where a criminal gang takes the data and then also sells the data to a state actor in addition to demanding a ransom for not releasing the data into the public domain.

One more scenario is that if the intrusion is detected by the victim, a ransom then provides a “criminal” cover story to what might in fact be a hostile state action.

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