@neil good. It also sounds like good news for insurance companies.

@neil Your emergency hospital got ransomwared? Sorry, guv, a quick solution is now illegal. Go die somewhere else.

@neil It's a start but they also needed to make it subject to banking KYC rules as that would make trying to dodge around the issues of paying a ransom really hard, and ensure the banks are on the lookout for dubious transactions.

@neil This is a naïve move. Stamping your feet doesn't make these attacks go away. Making it a business transaction kept them in some sort of order and has been an effective way to deal with them. Banning payments IMHO is going to unleash a wild west with far more data loss and impact to business that will ultimately cost more than paying.

@neil yay

@neil is there are detail on whether they can exploit a loophole i.e. "WE didn't pay the ransom but the insurance company did"

@neil people have tried that approach many times in the past, paying is a thing because it has become the cheapest and most reliable way to fend off ransomware. Not that people didn't think to try not paying them before.