If they don't uphold their promises, they can't repeat the scam. I've dealt with the hackers and they're better tech support than larger corps in many ways. They want you to be successful, in a weird way.

They're dicks for doing it, but when your admin password is "1991mustang" for 16 years, maybe you deserve a lesson in security.

@nobsi@feddit.de is exactly right in their comments.

Also do this in my business. 1. Most do. Otherwise there would be nobody that pays. 100% of my insured customers got their data back. I cannot speak on Personal ransomware. I never paid myself. 2. We got the key to reverse the encryption and gave that to the lawyers and then started work on decrypting. 3. Are you insured? Does your insurer pay? Do your lawyers know? How did they get in? Is that fixable? Why wasnt it closed before? Is it fixed now? Is there proof that what happened will not immediately happen again? And lots more lawyer stuff.

They will demand payment in cryptocurrency, usually bitcoin, which is untraceable. There's no guarantee that they will really keep their word; since it's completely anonymous, there's nothing you can do. If you get infected, you just have to accept that your files are gone. The best thing you can do is backup while you still can.