The price of a buck is no longer the determining factor in a DDoS extortion scheme. Instead, the threat actor has the power to make his or her extortion dollars go further. In the recent past, cybercriminals have targeted banks in South Africa and China, among other locales. As a result, many companies were caught off guard by the latest and greatest in the world of digital threats.
According to security researchers, the Bitcoin price surge had an eerie effect on the perpetrators of DDoS extortion schemes. As the price of the cryptocurrency soared, the criminals took advantage of their newfound wealth. They used the opportunity to reprioritize their attacks and lowered the bar on their demand. Despite the hefty price tag, many companies were unable to ante up.
On the positive side, this meant that the bad guys were forced to lower their game. While the demand for a buck did not get any smaller, the number of DDoS attacks that lasted more than 50 hours also diminished. That said, if you want to avoid being snared by the latest and greatest in the world of cyberattacks, you need to take a few steps to protect your organization. Among them, you should secure IoT devices connected to public networks. Also, keep a close watch on the latest in DDoS extortionists.
A slew of DDoS extortion schemes have recently been exposed by Radware. Its security team has released an alert in the hopes of putting an end to this scourge. Along with the alert, the company has rerouted its clients’ traffic to a scrubbing center to reduce the chances of their network being targeted by hackers. At the same time, it has taken a page from the book and implemented the best practices to prevent future attacks.
One of the aforementioned extortion schemes was actually sent to a handful of customers at the start of 2020, according to a representative from the company. This particular extortion is a cypher, but that does not mean the perpetrators won’t be back. For example, a group of disgruntled Bitcoin users launched a major DDoS attack against the People’s Bank of China in December 2013. Meanwhile, the neo-hackers have targeted financial organizations in a number of locations, including the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX), the United Kingdom’s Prudential, and the aforementioned New Zealand bourse. These attacks are all part of a global campaign started by Radware in August of that year.
One of the best measures to ward off such attacks is to request additional protection from your security provider. This is not just for protection against the latest and greatest, but also for prevention against other, more mundane threats. Using a variety of tools and techniques is the best way to make sure your business is protected in the face of a DDoS extortion attempt. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our upcoming article: How to Secure Your Organization Against Digital Attacks.