This is very interesting and I had not heard about it yet. If those numbers they are estimating are correct it could affect over half of all Americans! That truly is startling. I think that, in hindsight, they definitely should have just paid the ransom if they could keep it out of the news all together. If the news that they paid a ransom like that were to get out though, the number of people trying to exploit them would be huge.
This is done on A LOT of darknet markets as well. Bug hunters will search for valnerabilities and when they find 1, they provide proof and are paid based on the magnitude of the find. This is a bit different as its a ransom but nonetheless, sometimes it's worth the money on the off chance the info is true, even if the reasoning is solely to protect the stock price of the company from the reaction to FUD. Great, thought provoking piece as always!