Hunt down the people creating and launching them. And execute them.
I’m serious. Find
them and quietly execute them on the spot.
Don’t arrest them. Don’t wait for some drawn out public trial, or pleas
for mercy because they might be kids.
They show no mercy to others. Don’t show any to them. Exterminate them immediately once they’re
found. Wherever that is. Here or
anyplace else in the world.
We all know we could actually do that if we wanted. If we
can find a mass murderer in Pakistan and send in a team that kills him, we can
find and take out these guys. If we can
drone strike the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard while he’s traveling in
Iraq, we can do the same to them. You know
we’ve done this behind the scenes to bad guys around the world for
decades.
Bad guys sometimes just seem to disappear without a trace never
to be heard from again. Organized crime has
been known to do this at times, and sometimes for us as well.
But that’s not enough. Freeze and seize their assets, bank accounts,
online crypto currency stashes, computer hardware, personal possessions –
anything they owned, rented or borrowed before or after they started writing and
pushing out viruses or ransomware.
Do
the same to everyone in their orbit, anyone who may have provided any help or
encouragement to them at all.
Then permanently pull the plug on any service provider they’ve
used to spawn their wares. Find who owns that service provider and put them in
jail forever. Again, no mercy.
Make it known in their “community” that associating with
someone writing, producing, or even just distributing a virus or ransomware attack
makes them an accomplice, equally guilty and subject to the same extreme punishment. Like “disappearing.” Again, no matter where
they are.
Now, some – like the ACLU – would say this is a violation of
their rights. I would say they have no rights anymore. They are fine with endangering the lives of
millions of innocent people, just as the recent ransomware attack on the Irish
health system clearly demonstrates. Once
that attack began, the authorities had to cancel all appointments and surgeries.
Some would also say the U.S. cannot be involved in such extra-judicial
activities, especially when these might encompass foreign nationals. I would
respond that the U.S. doesn’t have to do this itself; there are plenty of private
contractors – like Blackwater and others with private strike teams – that would
be happy to do it for us. For a fee of course. Or a simple bounty on their heads.
It would be worth
every penny.
We might even get some tech billionaires to help underwrite
the cost. It’s their software and
platforms being used as vehicles to enable and carry out many of these attacks,
after all.
What about computer viruses and ransomware that originate in
other countries; do we have the right to go in there? Legally, perhaps not. But should we,
yes.
And we’d probably get away with
it.
Does anyone think Russia, which has enough economic and political
problems already, wants to be seen as a haven for virus and ransomware
operations? A lot of them are there, and
in other eastern European countries; the leaders of those countries certainly know who the
bad actors are and what they’re doing.
Does anyone think China, trying to charm and win over the rest of the world, doesn't know exactly who the hackers and ransomware creators in their country are? Of course they do; China's a police state for God's sake.
But like the others they won’t admit it. They can’t. They have to pretend they care.
Think about it: if the trackers start sweeping these operations
out of their countries, do you think any of those leaders would stand up and
fight to preserve them? They’d have to
first admit they knew who these modern-day pirates were and what they were
doing all along.
When hackers and ransomware
bandits attack school systems, police departments, pipelines, public utilities,
hospitals, and the entire health system of a country, it’s time to realize how
dangerous these criminals are to everyone. Not just the U.S. But to the entire world.
It's time to take them out with extreme prejudice. Wherever
they are.
Whatever the cost.
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