surely these criminals will take the money and go live a fulfilling life, and not do something like this again in the future

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/administrative-tech/2026/05/11/instructure-pays-ransom-canvas-hackers

Instructure Pays Ransom to Canvas Hackers

Although the monetary value of the deal is unknown, Instructure says the cybercriminals have returned the hacked personal data and offered assurance “that no Instructure customers will be extorted as a result of this incident.”

Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
@regehr the local drama is that one of the most popular classes at UW is the psych departments class on human sexuality and the students are all worried that the hackers now have access to all their fantasies
@dan everyone pays the hackers except this one class at UW, who will be paid by the hackers for this content
@regehr @dan Wait until they find out their OnlyFans data is fully available on dark web Amazon.
@regehr if I were them, I would invest the money in a couple jerry cans of gas and let it grow.
@regehr yep. ransom payers are like tragedy of the commons. "Well if I just piss in the pool it will save *me* a roundtrip to the restrooms, therefore..."

@regehr Look, we're just being rational actors here.

Market forces and all that.

@regehr Sadly, companies pay data ransoms as a matter of course. It’s just another form of ‘settled out of court’ to them.
@regehr I wonder how the "shred logs" they received look like