Several of London’s largest banks are looking to stockpile bitcoins in order to pay off cyber criminals who threaten to bring down their critical IT systems.

The virtual currency, which is highly prized by criminal networks because it cannot be traced, is being acquired by blue chip companies in order to pay ransoms, according to a leading IT expert.

On Friday, hackers attacked the websites of a number of leading online companies including Twitter, Spotify and Reddit. They used a special code to harness the power of hundreds of thousands of internet-connected home devices, such as CCTV cameras and printers, to launch “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attacks through a US company called Dyn, which provides directory services to online companies. DDoS attacks involve inundating computer servers with so much data traffic that they cannot cope.

There is no evidence that Dyn was the subject of extortion demands but it has become apparent that hackers have been using the code to threaten other businesses into paying them with bitcoins or risk becoming the target of similar attacks.

Dr Simon Moores, a former technology ambassador for the UK government and chair of the annual international e-Crime Congress, the global body that brings together IT professionals, said the scale and ferocity of the attacks meant some banks were coming round to the view that it was cheaper to pay off the criminals than risk an attack.

It may make sense to buy some Bitcoin for any organization that has a large IT operation.
Many companies see computers, shared drives etc get hit by ransomware and they may not always have backups of that data.
(Especially if you are talking about individual users laptops etc)

I don't think that any of these companies are going to be buying and hoarding enough coins for it to make a difference in the price of BTC,
but its an interesting topic to discuss, at least.

I find it difficult to believe that banks are preparing to pay a ransom, but I know that banks invest in many fields. Properties, shares, bonds, so it's not surprising at all they're buying a few BTC.

Do we have any confirmed information that some bank actually paid the ransom already?

I love the use of the word "hoarding", it reminds me of tinfoil hats with their cans of beans and shotgun ammo waiting for Armageddon.
Or the way people rush off to the supermarket and buy trolley loads of sugar when there's a powercut.