Bloomberg: Norm Hullinger was heading into work one day in October when he got a call that his company’s network was acting up. It was no simple glitch. Hackers had started freezing the data of Alphabroder, a sportswear distributor. They wanted more than $3 million to restore it. Grappling with whether to pay, Hullinger, the chief executive officer, embarked on a journey that’s increasingly familiar to law firms, hospitals, and cities that have found themselves on the other end of negotiations with ransomware criminals.