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It actually made my skin crawl reading about it. Never had that reaction to such a story before. Interesting...

Edit: It's the BTC aspect that's worrisome. Ransomeware is nothing new -- AIDS Information Trojan did it in 1989, but the (potentially) safe method of payments in crypto currency seem to be a new factor that will attract much more innovation in these type of attacks.

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I just though the exact opposite. When I read "Ransomware comes of age with ... anonymous payments." I just thought "Somebody is going for a surprise once he finds out how anonymous Bitcoin really is".

Anyway, what really makes me nervous is Microsoft's insistence of executing any data that a their programs touch.

I thought there were numerous laundering services?

Here's one:

https://blockchain.info/wallet/send-shared

(Please note, before downvoting, that I'm not saying that's a bad thing)

there is no downvoting

On the contrary, after accumulating a certain amount of karma (500 points??) a user gains the ability to downvote comments (but not stories).

Also, downvoting is only available for a certain comment age. Once the comment is X hours old, you lose the ability to downvote, but can still upvote.

X should be 24 hours https://github.com/wting/hackernews/blob/master/news.arc#L10...

thanks for the neg reps, really shows your attitude towards newcomers

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