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Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

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Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#11

Post by thinggowrrong »

Tloewald wrote: post #10
mantraxC wrote: post #2

I posted this because I found it of particular interest that the blackmailers ask for payment in Bitcoin. It makes you think if Bitcoin is turning into a giant example of "be careful what you wish for". We have exchange after exchange get hacked and legit Bitcoin users losing their money, and now Bitcoin enables extortion schemes that couldn't work so effortlessly before. Where is this going?

Bitcoin — assuming it works — also becomes the perfect currency for kidnappers and blackmailers. Awesome, huh?

yup, we can't have the cake and eat it too. we have to learn how to minimize risks and keeping bitcoin alive

Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#12

Post by [deleted] »

thinggowrrong wrote: post #11
Tloewald wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin — assuming it works — also becomes the perfect currency for kidnappers and blackmailers. Awesome, huh?

yup, we can't have the cake and eat it too. we have to learn how to minimize risks and keeping bitcoin alive

[deleted]

Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#13

Post by ceejayoz »

joncameron wrote: post #6
codeddesign wrote: post #3

i dont get it...why not just switch your dns to cloudflare or a similiar service and run under their protection?

Right there in the article... Moz signed up with CloudFlare "but Mr. Skinner said the attacker has found new ways to attack their systems." Does anyone know what that might be? There are quite a few people on HN who have zero sympathy for DDoS victims who don't pony up for Cloudflare etc., but I'm curious about situations when that isn't going to help or other attack vectors that will get you regardless.

The underlying hosting that CloudFlare proxies to can be attacked, for one.

Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#14

Post by bunderbunder »

mantraxC wrote: post #2

I posted this because I found it of particular interest that the blackmailers ask for payment in Bitcoin. It makes you think if Bitcoin is turning into a giant example of "be careful what you wish for". We have exchange after exchange get hacked and legit Bitcoin users losing their money, and now Bitcoin enables extortion schemes that couldn't work so effortlessly before. Where is this going?

> Where is this going?

Not far's my guess. If BTC gets too popular as a tool for extortion and money laundering, then the authorities in developed countries are going to start carefully monitoring people who sell large quantities of BTC for sovereign currency or commodities. It would just be another part of their general efforts to combat organized crime. That would make major speculators feel less welcome. If major speculators decide to take their ball and go play somewhere else, the price of BTC will probably tank. That'll discourage everyone else. At which point BTC becomes a terrible medium for money laundering because nobody wants to buy them. I also suspect that the relative anonymity of any one transaction is closely related to overall transaction volume in the BTC economy.

Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#15

Post by dublinben »

bunderbunder wrote: post #14
mantraxC wrote: post #2

I posted this because I found it of particular interest that the blackmailers ask for payment in Bitcoin. It makes you think if Bitcoin is turning into a giant example of "be careful what you wish for". We have exchange after exchange get hacked and legit Bitcoin users losing their money, and now Bitcoin enables extortion schemes that couldn't work so effortlessly before. Where is this going?

> Where is this going? Not far's my guess. If BTC gets too popular as a tool for extortion and money laundering, then the authorities in developed countries are going to start carefully monitoring people who sell large quantities of BTC for sovereign currency or commodities. It would just be another part of their general efforts to combat organized crime. That would make major speculators feel less welcome. If major…

These organizations aren't in developed countries, so their potential cash-outs wouldn't be noticed. Going forward, I would expect even more of the expenses of running an online criminal operation to be payable in BTC, so you wouldn't even need to convert it.

Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#16

Post by NotAtWork »

mpyne wrote: post #9
nitrogen wrote: post #8

DDoS attacks like this wouldn't be so easy if governments actively fixed backdoors in hardware and software instead of creating and stockpiling them. Much harder to build a botnet if there are fewer vulnerable systems to recruit via exploits.

> DDoS attacks like this wouldn't be so easy if governments actively fixed backdoors in hardware and software instead of creating and stockpiling them. The same thing keeping government from regulating the Internet is the same thing keeping government from simultaneously fixing every flaw in every router, switch, and TCP/IP stack. Stockpiling has nothing to do with it by itself, as they are stockpiling individual num…

> NSA didn't even know about Heartbleed

Source?

Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#17

Post by opendais »

codeddesign wrote: post #3

i dont get it...why not just switch your dns to cloudflare or a similiar service and run under their protection?

If you have MX records on a cloudflare enabled domain you have to expose the Ip address of your mail server:

https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200168536-W...

If that is in the same DC as the rest of your equipment [or worse, the same server] it might be still possible to figure things out and DDoS you.

The underlying hosting is just as vulnerable w/ or w/o Cloudflare.

Last week someone spinning up their own botnet threw like 1Gbps at a side project of mine via UDP at the mail server.

Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#18

Post by jgrowl »

Tloewald wrote: post #10
mantraxC wrote: post #2

I posted this because I found it of particular interest that the blackmailers ask for payment in Bitcoin. It makes you think if Bitcoin is turning into a giant example of "be careful what you wish for". We have exchange after exchange get hacked and legit Bitcoin users losing their money, and now Bitcoin enables extortion schemes that couldn't work so effortlessly before. Where is this going?

Bitcoin — assuming it works — also becomes the perfect currency for kidnappers and blackmailers. Awesome, huh?

You mean like straight cash has been up until now?

Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#19

Post by sanswork »

jgrowl wrote: post #18
Tloewald wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin — assuming it works — also becomes the perfect currency for kidnappers and blackmailers. Awesome, huh?

You mean like straight cash has been up until now?

Yup. Except straight cash still needs someone to physically collect it which leaves a point of failure in the crime and a good place for authorities to catch the bad guys. Bitcoin removes that.

Re: Tally of Cyber Extortion Attacks on Tech Companies Grows

#20

Post by jgrahamc »

nitrogen wrote: post #8

DDoS attacks like this wouldn't be so easy if governments actively fixed backdoors in hardware and software instead of creating and stockpiling them. Much harder to build a botnet if there are fewer vulnerable systems to recruit via exploits.

A. I don't see how "the government" is behind botnets.

B. You don't need many machines to create DDoS attacks because of reflection/amplification.

C. You can rent machines without having to use a botnet.

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