So what happens when in the office during a break people start talking about how Bitcoin is to blame for all these Crypto Viruses being let loose on the internet and that it's making the life of small businesses harder. My answer to such people would be as below:
Hackers and ransomware has been in existence for quite some time apparently they're about 20 years older than Bitcoin. Now that most of the media outlets are blaming Bitcoin for the rise in ransomware because they think Bitcoin is an anonymous payment method and hackers love it because apparently Bitcoin payments can't be identified. Since majority of the world don't know how Bitcoin payments work, they take the word of these news articles and start the rhetoric that governments need to crack down on Bitcoin.
But the reality is that Bitcoin transactions leave a trail of pseudonymous breadcrumbs on the blockchain and if the hackers tries to cash the payments out into their local currency they might accidentally leave an IP address to those pseudonyms and give themselves away. In the past hackers have been caught and prosecuted using the trail they've left behind on the blockchain.
The most important thing here is the security of our computers. People just don't take the security of sensitive records seriously. This problem of hackers has been around for such long and the solutions are fairly simple, that we need to use strong passwords, that we don't share our passwords with anyone and that we shouldn't open suspicious email attachments.
So ignoring our own mistakes with regards to security of our computers and merely blaming it on Bitcoin isn't going to stop ransomware. Even though there will be evil people in the world who'll try and use this crypto technology for their evil deeds, people shouldn't fear Bitcoin, they should learn about this new technology that could actually make their life much simpler and safer.
Now Question to the Steemians - Why do you think the recent WannCry hackers haven't been identified even though Bitcoin payments can be tracked?