When malicious hackers disable your business and demand a ransom, should you pay up? Many firms do out of desperation, turning to intermediaries to help broker the deal. But law enforcement says this just makes things worse.
Imagine the excitement when hackers gained a foothold in the computer system of Norsk Hydro, a global aluminium producer.
We don't know when it was, but it's likely that once inside they spent weeks exploring this group's IT systems, probing for more weaknesses.
When they eventually launched their ransomware attack, it was devastating - 22,000 computers were hit across 170 different sites in 40 different countries.
Chief information officer Jo De Vliegher reopens the ransom note that appeared on computers all over the company. It read: "Your files have been encrypted with the strongest military algorithms... without our special decoder it is impossible to restore the data."
The entire workforce - 35,000 people - had to resort to pen and paper.
Production lines shaping molten metal were switched to manual functions, in some cases long-retired workers came back in to help colleagues run things "the old fashioned way".
In many cases though, production lines simply had to stop.
Imagine the hacker's anticipation as they waited to receive a reply to their ransom note. After all, every minute counts for a modern manufacturing powerhouse. They probably thought they could name their price.
But the reply never came. The hackers were never even asked how much money they wanted. Imagine the shock.
All that work. For nothing.
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