Two sister blogs, Hacked (Security & Tech) and CryptoCoinsNews, have decided to go the Mel Gibson route (“Ransom” movie reference for the uncool kids) and put out a bounty on DDoS attackers instead of paying the money they were asking for.
It all started earlier this morning, when both sites saw a serious DDoS attack being carried out against their server infrastructure. Three hours after the attack began, the two received emails from a man named Jon.
The attacker claimed to own a botnet that he intended to use for DDoS attacks. He said that currently he was using only 20% of the botnet’s capabilities against the two sites. Jon was asking for a 2 Bitcoin ransom, which would become 3 Bitcoin by tomorrow if unpaid.
Instead of giving in and being intimidated by the attacker, the two sites ramped up their DDoS mitigation and decided to put out a 5 Bitcoin ransom on the attacker, which is about $1,600 or €1,500 in today’s exchange rate.
Turning the table on DDoS extortionists
“If you can help us identify the extortionists in a way that leads to a successful police report, you will receive five bitcoins, with gratitude,” says Samburaj Das of CCN and Hacked.
The bloggers are looking for data like real names, addresses, and attacks carried out on other sites that would allow investigators to track their DDoS campaign. Details should be sent to crypto@cryptocoinsnews.com.
Only last month something similar happened to ProtonMail, a crypto email service. The site was under a massive DDoS attack, which also expanded to its ISP. Due to peer pressure from other affected services, ProtonMail paid the ransom, but the attacks never stopped, with other groups also taking aim at their infrastructure.
Many people skewered ProtonMail’s owners for paying the attackers, saying it was a bad idea and did nothing but encourage such types of groups to carry on with their DDoS-for-Bitcoin extortion campaigns. We’ll just have to wait and see how Hacked/CCN’s countermove goes through.
Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/bloggers-put-bounty-on-ddos-extortionists-496586.shtml
