Are Bitcoin Businesses Targets for Online Extortion?
Planning on entering the Bitcoin space? You might want to learn some DDoS mitigation techniques before diving in… DDoS attacks against Bitcoin-related websites have resulted in numerous Bitcoin ransoms in recent weeks. At least four bitcoin exchanges and four Bitcoin news websites have came under rudimentary attacks in November. The exchanges and news websites have confirmed DDoS attacks and accompanying extortion letters. While Armada Collective claims to be behind some attacks, other attacks seem to stem from different sources. On November 16, UK Bitcoin exchange BitBargain was attacked....
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Extortion for Bitcoin has become more and more common within the United States, with families, businesses and even police departments under attack. Anywhere from a couple of bitcoins to one hundred or more are demanded. The problem has been domestic, but now other major Bitcoin markets like Australia and New Zealand are feeling the effects of those desperate enough for Bitcoin that they turn to a life of crime. A scourge of DOS attacks has hit the region, according to ZDNet. Extortion in Australia by an Unknown Group. The identity of the group or its participants is unknown at this time,....
Remember those extortion letters a number of businesses began receiving a few weeks ago? The Better Business Bureau has come out to say "don't worry" about the whole thing. And just in case you're not briefed on the matter, a number of business owners received letters with an explicit threat: pay up or horrible things will happen to your business. The blackmail letters read: You business, BUSINESS NAME, has been targeted for extortion. The selection process is random, and was not triggered by any event under your control. Should you fail to pay the one-time monetary tribute, by the....
Extortionist group DD4BC appears to be connected to a new wave of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against organizations in Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia. With the new attacks, the group is seeking 25 BTC from affected parties in exchange for relinquishing the flood of inbound data is issues that renders recipient websites inaccessible. Most recently, DD4BC was named in an 8th May warning published by the Swiss Governmental Computer Emergency Response Team (GovCERT), a division of MELANI, a national agency focused on cybersecurity issues. The warning read: "In the past....
In a major development, a court in India has sentenced 14 individuals, including a former police superintendent, to life imprisonment over kidnapping and a Bitcoin (BTC) extortion crime. The case, which originally began in 2018, finally concluded last Friday, finding 14 out of 15 defendants guilty of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping for ransom, illegal detention, and […]
A Tennessee man was recently found guilty on charges of extortion and wire fraud scheme in the attempted extortion of former Republican Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney. The extortion scheme from 2012 saw the accused demand $1 million in bitcoin in exchange for purportedly stolen tax returns belonging to Romney. A faux-hacker who tried to snag a million-dollar ransom in bitcoin in exchange for 2012 Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s tax records has been found guilty. In an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice, Michael Mancil Brown, 37, was convicted of six counts of....