> With a U.S. population of ~200M, let’s call it 4M infections/year. We know that 4% of respondents paid the ransom, so that’s 160,000 ransom payments. If we say $200 per paid ransom as a guess, that means the ransomware ‘industry’ is making about $32M a year.
The U.S. population is actually ~327M, but since we're talking ballpark figures, let's just say that ~200M represents the adult computer-using population. It strikes that ransomware is both much bigger and much smaller than I thought. The 160,000 ransom payments is much bigger than I would have guessed. It's not like being struck by lightning; it's more like a serious car accident. But the actual revenue generated, $32M as he's estimated, is pitiful. There are all sorts of illegal, quasi-legal, and legal ripoffs that generates billions per year. For the amount of attention ransomware gets, it's just noise.
The U.S. population is actually ~327M, but since we're talking ballpark figures, let's just say that ~200M represents the adult computer-using population. It strikes that ransomware is both much bigger and much smaller than I thought. The 160,000 ransom payments is much bigger than I would have guessed. It's not like being struck by lightning; it's more like a serious car accident. But the actual revenue generated, $32M as he's estimated, is pitiful. There are all sorts of illegal, quasi-legal, and legal ripoffs that generates billions per year. For the amount of attention ransomware gets, it's just noise.