On May 9, an international grouping of hackers launched distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on ii of the largest fiscal institutions inward Hong Kong. Hong Kong law confirmed that they accept received reports from the Bank of China in addition to the Bank of Eastern Asia claiming that the hackers demanded payments inward bitcoin.
“The ii institutions afterwards received emails demanding payments inward bitcoins, or at that topographic point would endure around other circular of attacks,” a spokesman said.
According to The Standard Hong Kong, the hackers overwhelmed the websites of the ii banks amongst traffic from multiple sources, causing irregular spikes inward Internet traffic in addition to forcing around of the websites’ resources to endure unavailable.
However, both banks stressed that none of its information in addition to client accounts were compromised.
Finance Magnets reported that the Cyber Security in addition to Technology Crime Bureau has classified the example every bit “blackmail” in addition to has begun an investigation.
The assail imposed on the ii banks is similar to the DDoS attacks launched on the official corporate websites of banks inward China in addition to Hong Kong, virtually notably the People’s Bank of China inward slow 2013. The investigators at the fourth dimension believed that the attacks were a effect of the issuance of novel rules which prohibited fiscal institutions from dealing amongst bitcoin.
The State media reported that they believed “bitcoin fans” accept initiated the attack, every bit a answer to prohibiting the purpose of digital currencies inward China.
The local media began to speculate that the recent assail initiated on the Bank of China in addition to the Bank of Eastern Asia mightiness accept been launched past times a grouping of hackers known every bit DD4BC. The grouping is currently listed on Bitcoin Bounty Hunter in addition to has attacked several websites, including Finnish Bitcoin wallet in addition to telephone commutation Bitalo in addition to Bitcoin sports betting platform Nitrogensports.
“DD4BC threatens the Bitcoin Community amongst DDoS extortion, blackmailing in addition to slander,” Bitcoin Bountry Hunter explained. “Famous Bitcoin services similar Bitalo.com in addition to Nitrogensports.com were attacked in addition to blackmailed.”
The banks declined to unloose information of the emails received past times the hackers in addition to the amount of BTC demanded.
If the DDoS attacks are continuing, the ii banks may lose upward to $100,000 an hour, American Banker reports. AMR (American Banker Reports) stated that “the average bandwidth consumed past times a DDoS assail increased to 7.39 gigabits per second, according to Verisign’s analysis of DDoS attacks inward the 4th quarter of 2014.”
A few days accept passed since the Cyber Security in addition to Technology Crime Bureau began investigating the case, exactly the example hasn’t showed whatever progress.