The tally of ransom payments may rise ahead of Friday’s deadline, but cybersecurity experts say the current numbers — both total ransom money paid and machines decrypted — are far short of early estimates forecasting
that the digital attack may eventually cost victims hundreds of millions of dollars in combined ransom fees.
Aside from dissuading victims from handing over money
that may help fund further such attacks, they caution that it is not guaranteed the attackers will return control of people’s computers even if they pay the assailants in bitcoin, a digital currency favored in such ransomware attacks that can be difficult to trace.
Now, Mr. Gren and the thousands of other victims worldwide face an agonizing choice: either hand over the ransom — a figure
that has climbed to $600 for each affected machine — by a deadline this Friday, or potentially lose their digital information, including personal photos, hospital patient records and other priceless data, forever.
Officials also note that the attackers, who have yet to been named, have provided only three bitcoin addresses — similar to a traditional
bank routing number — for all global victims to deposit the ransom, so it may prove difficult to know who has paid the digital fees.