This is a new one, from Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....ype=internetNews&storyID=3803922&pageNumber=0
Zombie Machines Fueling New Cyber Crime Wave
LONDON (Reuters) - The rapid growth of broadband home computer connections may be inadvertently fueling what police suspect could be the start of a new crime wave -- cyber-blackmail
Favorite targets for the extortionists -- many thought to come from eastern Europe -- have been casinos and retailers, but one recent high-profile victim was the Port of Houston.
"At the end of the day, this is old-fashioned protection racket, just using high-tech," said a spokeswoman for Britain's Hi-Tech Crime Unit.
Police have seen an increase in the number of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks targeting online businesses.
In some cases, the attacks, which can cripple a corporate network with a barrage of bogus data requests, are followed by a demand for money. An effective attack can knock a Web site offline for extended periods.
Online casinos appear to be a favorite target as they do brisk business and many are located in the Caribbean where investigators are poorly equipped to tackle such investigations.
the denial-of-service barrages were followed by demands to pay up or the attacks would continue. He said the attacks appear to have come from organized criminal groups in Eastern Europe and Russia
I suppose someone would of figured out sooner or later that DDoS attacks being so easy to carry out and so potentially crippling that you could acutally demand money to stop them but it was still a suprise to me when i heard about it.
Apparently many companies are actually paying up prompting the crime units to actually send out a plea for people to report it instead.
Personally i would rather spend the money on shoring up against attacks instead of buying off the attackers for a little while but then maybe some businesses just arent tech savvy enough to thing that way?
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....ype=internetNews&storyID=3803922&pageNumber=0
Zombie Machines Fueling New Cyber Crime Wave
LONDON (Reuters) - The rapid growth of broadband home computer connections may be inadvertently fueling what police suspect could be the start of a new crime wave -- cyber-blackmail
Favorite targets for the extortionists -- many thought to come from eastern Europe -- have been casinos and retailers, but one recent high-profile victim was the Port of Houston.
"At the end of the day, this is old-fashioned protection racket, just using high-tech," said a spokeswoman for Britain's Hi-Tech Crime Unit.
Police have seen an increase in the number of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks targeting online businesses.
In some cases, the attacks, which can cripple a corporate network with a barrage of bogus data requests, are followed by a demand for money. An effective attack can knock a Web site offline for extended periods.
Online casinos appear to be a favorite target as they do brisk business and many are located in the Caribbean where investigators are poorly equipped to tackle such investigations.
the denial-of-service barrages were followed by demands to pay up or the attacks would continue. He said the attacks appear to have come from organized criminal groups in Eastern Europe and Russia
I suppose someone would of figured out sooner or later that DDoS attacks being so easy to carry out and so potentially crippling that you could acutally demand money to stop them but it was still a suprise to me when i heard about it.
Apparently many companies are actually paying up prompting the crime units to actually send out a plea for people to report it instead.
Personally i would rather spend the money on shoring up against attacks instead of buying off the attackers for a little while but then maybe some businesses just arent tech savvy enough to thing that way?