3. NSA won't do shit . (which is the thing likely to happen in this case)
normally when a federal agency is involved, nobody will pay any ransom....
and we are talking about NSA: they could reach "anyone" so it's only a matter of time
for this group of hackers.
The government will say that to the public indeed. "We don't pay ransom to terrorists", but you don't know what happens behind closed doors and guess what, bitcoin makes dealing with them suddenly quite easy. Saying stuff and actions are a completely different thing.
Then again, I don't believe the NSA will ever pay the hackers. They will more likely focus all their efforts to rehack the hackers or something or figure out who they are somehow if they left even the slightest trace.
Especially absurd ransoms like 1 million bitcoin are almost impossible to be met (there is not enough liquid bitcoin to get this at a "normal" price).
It doesn't make it easy since the amount is big honestly , I mean how could the NSA buy that amount (assuming that they don't have it already) without no one knowing about ? they could make it silently but It will take them some time to get that amount.
In the other hand , even If they manage to get that amount I'm pretty sure hackers will say that NSA paid them so It's impossible to be done "behind the scenes" .
They (NSA) also allegedly left a back door in Microsoft computers running the secure boot firmware that was found by a security annalist. I also read it might also affect some full disk encryption programs. The worst part is they can't close it. If you own a MS phone or tablet Secure boot can't be disabled leaving you vulnerable to attack.
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If the hackers were after money they would have sold these tools already to the highest bidder. With each passing day they are worth less and less. It's more likely this was a warning to the US government to back the fuck off. ("We have your toys and if we release them everyone will know you've been attacking your own citizens and allies with these tools. So back the fuck off or else! ")
They could sell them for sure but I don't think they will get half billion for it so that's why they are looking for NSA to buy it back.
As for the warning , both Wikileaks & Edward Snowden made everyone on the world understand that U.S government spy on everyone so I don't think we would need more proof for that.