FBI Gives Hollywood Hacking Victims Surprising Advice:
.. “Pay the Ransom”...
The frequency of the attacks has overwhelmed the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, which has been unable to properly investigate all of them. The FBI’s surprising advice, according to industry sources: Pay the ransom. After all, the hackers aren’t asking much more than a Cannes hotel tab. In all of the Hollywood extortion cases, the hackers demanded less than $80,000. A law enforcement source says that in California, losses would need to exceed $50,000 for the U.S. Attorney’s office to prosecute, thus keeping the FBI from pursuing most of these cases.
How about have a backup of your data and software and just give the extorters the finger and wipe the drive and restore? I know it will take some work, but it's certainly cheaper than $80,000. Of course if you are a Hollywood liberal which by definition means you are stupid, you probably don't do backups.