The big picture: "This creates a collective action problem — the bad guys win so they'll go out and hit someone else," said Betsy Cooper, director of Aspen Tech Policy Hub at the Aspen Institute. "As an organization, you have to take into account the immediate costs versus the cost of your data. The less prepared you are, the worse it's going to be." Threat level: Code red. Negotiating can backfire. Last week, foreign hackers released sensitive files they stole from the Washington D.C. police department last month, after the department offered to pay $100,000 rather than the $4 million that was demanded to return the data, DCist reported. The hackers reportedly said they'd keep the files public for months, even if the police department offered more than the original ransom.