Back in 2019 at a coffee shop in Portland I saw someone get their whole laptop locked up

Honestly, I was just waiting for my latte and this guy next to me clicked a link in a sketchy email. Within seconds his screen went black with a ransom note demanding $500 in Bitcoin. That moment made me finally set up 2FA on everything and I still think about how fast it happened. Has anyone else had a close call that made them change their habits?

2 comments

2 Comments

shanenguyen1d ago

You really think nobody pays those ransoms? My buddy's little brother had his whole thesis held hostage senior year. His parents just paid the $800 because he was about to graduate. And that antivirus you're bragging about? It didn't help me when I got hit with a fake Windows update screen that locked my browser for three hours. You got lucky so far, doesn't mean the rest of us are.

miller.paul2d ago

honestly people get way too worked up about this stuff. yeah it sucks if you lose some files but most people don't have anything that critical on their laptop anyway. I've clicked on weird links before and nothing happened, my antivirus just blocked it. and that whole "pay in bitcoin" thing is so obviously a scam nobody actually pays that. like how many ransomware victims do you even know personally? probably zero.