27 June 2017 - South Korean banks threatened with DDoS attacks

Armada Collective (hackers)
Source - https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2017/06/27/banks-ddos-attacks-extortion/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HelpNetSecurity+%28Help+Net+Security%29
Where - Korea, Republic of
Cost - 315,000 KRW
Business line - Corporate Services

A number of banks in South Korea are being threatened by cyber criminals.

According to reports, the threats have affected at least five institutions, including KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, KEB Hana Bank and NH Bank.

The cyber criminals, who are calling themselves the ‘Armada Collective’, are threatening the firms with DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks, which involve flooding a website with traffic so that it becomes inaccessible, unless they each pay a US$315,000 Bitcoin ransom.

The websites of the banks affected appear to be operating normally, so it is unclear whether any of the banks has paid the ransom amount.

The report comes just a week after South Korean web hosting firm Nayana paid out a record US$1m to ransomware attackers. Some suggest this may have set a precedent, especially as the firm’s CEO chose to make the amount public.

South Korea’s banks have been hit by numerous cyber-related attacks in recent years, including a DDoS attack on the country’s central bank in 2016 and a number of broadcasting organisations and retail banks in 2013.