Hackers Demand Major Bitcoin Ransom From Greek BanksOne Swiss company is reported to have paid the ransom (20 BTC in this case), only to find that the attacks continued.
The group issued its threat last Thursday, warning that it would overload the online systems of major Greek banks unless it was paid a ransom.
The police official clarified that the money was not given, but the hackers did not manage to have access to the bank accounts as the electronic safety systems were activated.
Crypto Coins News reported that the Bank of Greece along with a special unit comprising of experts from Greece's National Intelligence Service (EYP) and the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) are on guard and investigating the ransom demands and hacking threat of the Armada Collective. "But we had strengthened our defense in the meantime, so no disruptions took place". Several email providers informed about hacker attacks from the Armada Collective group.
"These attacks now disproportionately affect organizations that can not or have not deployed DDoS mitigation solutions, which are by and large effective against most of these attacks", said Ryan Kalember, senior vice president of Cybersecurity Strategy at Proofpoint to SCMagazine Tuesday in an email. "They claim to be able to do significant amounts of damage".
Mr. Vlissidis added that the relatively low ransom demand - the pattern so far suggests "just" a few thousand pounds are stipulated by the gang - is strategic: they hope to persuade enterprises to "just pay it and make it go away".
"In effect, they say: "Give us bitcoin or we will take you off the internet", he was quoted by the Financial Times as saying. There is a suggestion that someone can simply imitate the group by using "a similar modus operandi".
In June, the Greek government introduced capital controls to back up the country's financial system and avoid the possibility of a Greece leaving the euro.
http://recorderpress.com/2015/12/02/hackers-demand-major-bitcoin-ransom-from-greek-banks.html
