Ransomware gangs aren’t very bad

Ransomware is the big threat to all organisations. It’s the worst thing to ever happen on the internet. All ransomware gangs need to be hunted down and shut down wherever they may be. No ISP should be left unturned, no router left unexamined. They all need to be burnt to the ground!

But is that really the case?

If you think of the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears. Goldilocks is portrayed in a way in which we sympathise with her. Or are fearful for her safety once the bears return. But think of it from the perspective of the bears. You go out for a family walk, return home only to see someone entered your house, ate your food, broke your chair, and is sleeping in your bed.

The bears are the real victims here – they should have gone Dog the Bounty hunter and tracked down Goldilocks and made her pay compensation.

Of course, as a child you’re not really thinking critically about these things. You just read the story and are relieved when she escapes because you’re focussing on the wrong thing.

Which brings me to ransomware – sure it causes issues to organisations, causes job losses, and even impacts the lives of people in hospitals. But these are what you could consider the consequences – but not the objective. The objective of these gangs is primarily to make money. If they could make money without shutting down companies, I’m sure they would.

Bear with me, I’m not justifying or sympathising with ransomware gangs. They are criminals and deserve to be treated as such. The point is that are they the worst criminals on the internet today?

Now let’s take a look at a company formerly known as Facebook – the one they call Meta.

Let’s look at what page 1 of Google has to say about the company

FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

Facebook broke data law and faces £500,000 fine over Cambridge Analytica scandal

FTC hits Facebook with $5 billion fine and new privacy checks

Facebook whistleblower claims checked for breach of UK law

A quick bit of research (scrolling up and down a bit) shows that there are more laws broken by Facebook than perhaps any other organisation on the planet. Al Capone probably bows at the alter of Zuckerberg.

There are dozens of articles written about the psychological impact of Facebook which includes self-harm and suicide, narcissism. The platform has been used to spread disinformation, anti-sematism, incitement of violence in Sri Lanka, Uyghur, body issues and so many more.

When you start peeling back the layers, it becomes very very ugly very quickly.

So, while you have some criminals like ransomware gangs who want to rob you and possibly steal your data. There are other organisations like Facebook, which can rob you of your dignity, self-worth, and even lives.

By comparison, I’d say ransomware gangs aren’t all that bad. Like the story of Goldilocks, we need to shift the perspective a bit.

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*yes, I know the analogy doesn’t quite fit, but work with me here, I’m trying to write a blog a (working) day in November and didn’t have much time to flesh out my idea today.