A bunch of cybercriminals calling themselves DD4BC, short for (Distributed Denial of Services for Bitcoin) have been wreaking havoc in the cyberspace for a while now. DD4BC has been responsible for attacking several websites and servers belonging to large corporates, banks and financial institutions.
DD4BC has been active since last year and it has so far been responsible for over 150 attacks. Akamai reports that out of these 150 attacks, over 58 were against financial institutions. DD4BC has recently threatened to increase the number of attacks on financial institutions in the coming days. The group is demanding huge ransom amounts in bitcoin as “protection money” to prevent any future attacks on websites.
DD4BC started with attacks on networks belonging to media, online gaming, entertainment, retailers, corporate websites and even bitcoin mining companies. They have graduated since then to focus on banks, brokers, clearing houses and other financial institutions. Most of the DD4BC attacks are concentrated in Europe with few on American and Australian companies as well.
Financial service industry has been on the receiving end of these attacks for some time now and these cybercriminals are devising new tactics and strategies to damage the reputation of these organizations. DD4BC’s extortion tactics are well known among cybersecurity experts and law enforcement agencies who have already warned victims and potential victims of these attacks to never pay ransom.
The modus operandi of DD4BC is simple. Once they choose a target, they launch a simple attack for an hour or less as a warning message. They will then contact the victims and demand ransom which ranges from anywhere between 25 BTCs to 100 BTCs, to be paid within a set deadline in order to prevent more intense follow-up DDoS attacks.
Apart from the ransom, these DDoS attacks, if successful can do more harm to the company’s reputation than the infrastructure.
READ MORE: DD4BC Shifts Focus to Businesses, Continues DDoS Attack