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Cyberextortion A Lurking Threat |
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Source: securitypipeline.com - Posted by Vincenzo Ciaglia
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It's the kind of E-mail that grabs you by the collar and doesn't let go. On a Saturday afternoon last January, a message hit the in-box of BetCBSports.com, threatening to knock the online gambling site offline in prime sports-betting season if the company didn't pay up. . . .
"You have 3 choices. You can make a deal with us now before the attacks start. You can make a deal with us when you are under attack. You can ignore us and plan on losing your Internet business," the E-mail read.It was no bluff. Within three hours, the site was taken down by what's known as a distributed denial- of-service attack. The first attack lasted five minutes and then ceased. "They were showing us what they could do," says Thomas Burns, who runs the business-technology systems for what's now known as WagerWeb.com, operated by CasaBlanca Gaming. Such threats happen more often than most people realize. A survey by Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy, in conjunction with InformationWeek's Summer Research Fellowship, found extortion attacks are surprisingly common: 17% of the 100 companies surveyed say they've been the target of some form of cyberextortion. The study, authored by graduate student Gregory M. Bednarski, queried small and midsize businesses about cyberextortion and other types of computer fraud.
Read this full article at securitypipeline.com
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