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.
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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.
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