Those who argued that the “flourishing” of the Internet required the U.S. giving up control were in my opinion, hopelessly believing in unicorn and rainbow diplomacy.
I'm VERY skeptical that had Obama not had the Dept. of Commerce relinquish its ICANN oversight to an international party that ransomware attacks wouldn't be an issue. For one thing, they were already a problem when the US administered the group[1] and folks writing this crap are VERY good at getting around stuff like centralized DNS control[2].
As simple as life would be if the US ceding ICANN to an international party prevented ransomware, I just don't see that happening in the counterfactual universe.
I'm VERY skeptical that had Obama not had the Dept. of Commerce relinquish its ICANN oversight to an international party that ransomware attacks wouldn't be an issue. For one thing, they were already a problem when the US administered the group[1] and folks writing this crap are VERY good at getting around stuff like centralized DNS control[2].
As simple as life would be if the US ceding ICANN to an international party prevented ransomware, I just don't see that happening in the counterfactual universe.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ransomware#History
[2] https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/botnet-uses-blockchain-to-obfuscate-backup-command-and-control-information/d/d-id/1340240