Dive Brief:
- A long list of email providers have been attacked by cyber criminals requesting ransoms this month.
- The companies typically receive extortion requests asking for 10 or 20 bitcoins in exchange for not being subjected to distributed denial-of-service attacks.
- Experts say cyberattacks against email providers are likely to pass with time as they refuse to pay ransoms.
Dive Insight:
DDoS attacks involve sending a large amount of data traffic to a company's network, causing the service to choke. The most common and easiest fix can cost up to $10,000 a month.
This fact has made email providers "the perfect target for a shakedown," said Rob Mueller, a director at FastMail in Melbourne. By making the ransom less than $10,000, the attackers are hoping that paying a ransom will be an attractive option. But email providers are refusing to pay, and Mueller thinks those behind the attacks will eventually move on.
"The main people making the money will be the DDoS defense providers," Mueller said. "All the attempts to extort money will fail. Most people won't pay."
