People could encrypt other people’s files back in the eighties. The hard part was getting paid for the key without being caught, and bitcoin took that part over.
Computer extortion was invented long before bitcoin, and its main problem was always the last step. People knew how to encrypt someone else’s files back in the eighties. Getting money for the key without getting caught was much harder. A bank transfer can be traced and reversed, a card payment can be disputed, and a bundle of cash left at an agreed spot has to be collected in person. Victims were told to pay in electronic money like e-gold or Liberty Reserve, sometimes in prepaid cards, and the whole scheme was slow, unreliable and always ran into some living people who were sooner or later found.
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Employee of the Month — Nobody Owns Money | Mike Fluff
