I kinda disagree with this.

Not disagree as in "He's wrong, this is complete bollocks" but as in "He's right about some things, wrong bout others, missing yet others and the things are much more nuanced and discretion must be applied".

I was asked to elaborate, so here it is.

The whole article is based on the premise "ransomware contains data that's private for you, once you upload it, everyone can get it from VirusTotal". This is wrong and incomplete in several ways.
To begin with, by far not all ransomware is hand-crafted for the victim and even when it is, by far not all of it contains personal information.
Furthermore, the author is confusing the ransomware executable (which is what you normally upload to VirusTotal, so that the scanners there can tell you what it is) with the ransom note. The note contains victim-specific data much more often than the executable.
Next, VirusTotal, while hugely popular, is not the only such service. I very much like id-ransomware for ransomware identification - and you never upload the executable there anyway; only encrypted files (and ransom note, if available; often it's not).
id-ransomware does not make the uploads available to the public.

There are also services like hybrid-analysis where you can specify that a sample should not be shared publicly.
Next, many ransomwares delete the executable once it has finished encrypting, so you don't have an executable to upload anyway.
In fact, by the article's logic, you shouldn't upload *any* malware you come across to any place on the Internet, on the off-chance that it might contain information specific to you - and this is plain ridiculous.
Furthermore, your response to the incident (even if it consists of just consulting nomoreransom for the availability of a decryptor) depends very much on identifying the ransomware that has hit you. How are you going to do this?
Scanners like those that VT uses are pretty much useless, because they rarely bother with exact identification these days and often disagree in their naming. You need something better and more accurate, like id-ransomware.
Finally, don't forget that these days many ransomware gangs leak the information they have stolen before encrypting it, so your info is likely to become public anyway.
And at least if you are in Europe, when you discover a likely data breach, you have 72 hours to notify. If you try to hide that fact instead, you're likely to be slapped with fines far exceeding the ransom demands.
Basically, "never upload ransomware to the internet" is wrong. The correct position is "be aware of the possible pros and cons and exercise proper discretion".

/end

More from For later read

This response to my tweet is a common objection to targeted advertising.

@KevinCoates correct me if I'm wrong, but basic point seems to be that banning targeted ads will lower platform profits, but will mostly be beneficial for consumers.

Some counterpoints 👇


1) This assumes that consumers prefer contextual ads to targeted ones.

This does not seem self-evident to me


Research also finds that firms choose between ad. targeting vs. obtrusiveness 👇

If true, the right question is not whether consumers prefer contextual ads to targeted ones. But whether they prefer *more* contextual ads vs *fewer* targeted

2) True, many inframarginal platforms might simply shift to contextual ads.

But some might already be almost indifferent between direct & indirect monetization.

Hard to imagine that *none* of them will respond to reduced ad revenue with actual fees.

3) Policy debate seems to be moving from:

"Consumers are insufficiently informed to decide how they share their data."

To

"No one in their right mind would agree to highly targeted ads (e.g., those that mix data from multiple sources)."

IMO the latter statement is incorrect.

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राम-रावण युद्ध समाप्त हो चुका था। जगत को त्रास देने वाला रावण अपने कुटुम्ब सहित नष्ट हो चुका था।श्रीराम का राज्याभिषेक हुआ और अयोध्या नरेश श्री राम के नेतृत्व में चारों दिशाओं में शन्ति थी।
अंगद को विदा करते समय राम रो पड़े थे ।हनुमान को विदा करने की शक्ति तो राम में थी ही नहीं ।


माता सीता भी हनुमान को पुत्रवत मानती थी। अत: हनुमान अयोध्या में ही रह गए ।राम दिनभर दरबार में, शासन व्यवस्था में व्यस्त रहते थे। संध्या को जब शासकीय कार्यों में छूट मिलती तो गुरु और माताओं का कुशल-मंगल पूछ अपने कक्ष में जाते थे। परंतु हनुमान जी हमेशा उनके पीछे-पीछे ही रहते थे ।


उनकी उपस्थिति में ही सारा परिवार बहुत देर तक जी भर बातें करता ।फिर भरत को ध्यान आया कि भैया-भाभी को भी एकांत मिलना चाहिए ।उर्मिला को देख भी उनके मन में हूक उठती थी कि इस पतिव्रता को भी अपने पति का सानिध्य चाहिए ।

एक दिन भरत ने हनुमान जी से कहा,"हे पवनपुत्र! सीता भाभी को राम भैया के साथ एकांत में रहने का भी अधिकार प्राप्त है ।क्या आपको उनके माथे पर सिन्दूर नहीं दिखता?इसलिए संध्या पश्चात आप राम भैया को कृप्या अकेला छोड़ दिया करें "।
ये सुनकर हनुमान आश्चर्यचकित रह गए और सीता माता के पास गए ।


माता से हनुमान ने पूछा,"माता आप अपने माथे पर सिन्दूर क्यों लगाती हैं।" यह सुनकर सीता माता बोलीं,"स्त्री अपने माथे पर सिन्दूर लगाती है तो उसके पति की आयु में वृद्धि होती है और वह स्वस्थ रहते हैं "। फिर हनुमान जी प्रभु राम के पास गए ।