>there is no way to stop everyone from paying ransoms when we assume they are rational or even pseudo-rational actors
I guess it depends on what the definition of rational is. Is it rational to give money to charity? People do that all the time because they feel it's the morally right thing to do.
>except by making it impossible for them to be presented with the choice of paying a ransom which makes sense to them to pay from their perspective
Yep, making it illegal to pay the ransom is a good way to stop people from having that choice. If police themselves are paying a ransom, that might make it hard to make it illegal.
>The proportion of the population that will pay a ransom with a positive expected valuation will never be 0 unless...
You don't need to get the proportion to 0 to help people. Reducing the proportion is helpful. If you reduce the amount of people paying (say you convince half the population that it's immoral to pay), the ransomware gangs will be less profitable, and will invest less money in ransomware and thus less people will be attacked.
Some fraction of every ransom paid is reinvested into making better ransomware and attacking more people.
I guess it depends on what the definition of rational is. Is it rational to give money to charity? People do that all the time because they feel it's the morally right thing to do.
>except by making it impossible for them to be presented with the choice of paying a ransom which makes sense to them to pay from their perspective
Yep, making it illegal to pay the ransom is a good way to stop people from having that choice. If police themselves are paying a ransom, that might make it hard to make it illegal.
>The proportion of the population that will pay a ransom with a positive expected valuation will never be 0 unless...
You don't need to get the proportion to 0 to help people. Reducing the proportion is helpful. If you reduce the amount of people paying (say you convince half the population that it's immoral to pay), the ransomware gangs will be less profitable, and will invest less money in ransomware and thus less people will be attacked.
Some fraction of every ransom paid is reinvested into making better ransomware and attacking more people.