Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Computer hackers got into the hotel’s electronic key system and locked guests out of their rooms until management paid a ransom.
It’s a variation on the ransom-ware scam being used with other computer users. Pay up or you won’t get your system back.
This is modern-day piracy. There should be world-wide jurisdiction to pursue them, and bounties paid for their scalps.
Joe Doakes
No argument here. In fact, we‘ve touched on this before.
Maybe we could go back to regular keys. I sometimes feel locked out with those key cards as it is.
The Constitution authorizes Letters of Marque. It’s time to issuing them for digital piracy.
Was there a reason the hotel’s key card system was on an externally-accessible machine? If so, periodic off-site backups might’ve made the ransomware a nuisance– Re-image the PC(s) controlling the system, restore from backups, and you’re back in business. And maybe tighten up the firewall or take the system off-line while you’re at it.
Events like this do have a silver lining: They sometimes wake up the complacent who value convenience over security.
I’m fine with offering bounties for digital pirates who use ransomeware – preferably the kind the offers the same bounty whether they’re brought in dead or alive.