Blow against DDoS extortionists
Cyber investigators have apprehended an international DDoS extortionist.
Officials of the Hi-Tech Crime Department, Ministry of Interior Republic of Srpska, arrested a 32-year-old man in Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 2015. The Bosnian national is suspected of playing a leading role in an internationally operating group of cybercriminals with the pseudonym "DD4BC" ("DDoS for Bitcoin"), according to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in Germany. BKA cyber specialists would have accompanied the operational measures on site. Police officers from the USA, Great Britain, Austria and Europol also took part in the police operation.
The BKA is conducting an investigation on behalf of the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office, Central Office for Combating Cybercrime, against this group on suspicion of extortion and computer sabotage. The perpetrators had been using DDoS attacks against the online presence of larger e-commerce companies and firms worldwide since 2014. Worldwide, there are cases of damage in the high three-digit range.
The group had always followed the same pattern in its blackmail attacks: "DD4BC" had asked the companies to pay a certain amount in order to stop their attacks in return. In each case, the demand was for an amount in the digital currency Bitcoin, usually worth around 10,000 euros.
The successful arrest once again underscores the importance of international police cooperation in combating cybercriminals operating worldwide, he said. According to the BKA, in order to achieve such successes, it is necessary to cooperate in a spirit of trust with the business community, as is the case, for example, with the German Competence Centre against Cyber Crime (G4C e.V.) exists. Only if the companies concerned report the acts would prosecution be possible (in Switzerland, this is the responsibility of the cantonal police authorities).
Explanations:
- DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack: Attack on a computer with the aim of disabling its availability. The attack is carried out from many distributed computers.
- Bitcoin: The currency consists neither of banknotes nor coins. It consists of calculated, encrypted data blocks. The name is made up of the smallest memory unit in the computer, the bit, and the English word for coin, coin.
