The tally of ransom payments may rise ahead of Friday’s deadline, but cybersecurity experts say the current numbers — both total ransom money paid and machines decrypted — are far short of early estimates forecasting<br />that the digital attack may eventually cost victims hundreds of millions of dollars in combined ransom fees.<br />Aside from dissuading victims from handing over money<br />that may help fund further such attacks, they caution that it is not guaranteed the attackers will return control of people’s computers even if they pay the assailants in bitcoin, a digital currency favored in such ransomware attacks that can be difficult to trace.<br />Now, Mr. Gren and the thousands of other victims worldwide face an agonizing choice: either hand over the ransom — a figure<br />that has climbed to $600 for each affected machine — by a deadline this Friday, or potentially lose their digital information, including personal photos, hospital patient records and other priceless data, forever.<br />Officials also note that the attackers, who have yet to been named, have provided only three bitcoin addresses — similar to a traditional<br />bank routing number — for all global victims to deposit the ransom, so it may prove difficult to know who has paid the digital fees.
