Actually, $100,000 richer to be exact.
By sending just an email, the group called Armada Collective is easily shaking down companies and pulling in the cash. Distributed denial-of-service, better know as DDoS attacks, consist of little technical experience other than causing a website to crash by flooding it with traffic. Usually the threatening email alone is enough to get companies to pay up in Bitcoin.
This is not the first time we have heard of the Armada Collective group. Back in 2015 they became nonactive, and in 2016 alleged members were arrested. It is believed that a separate group has decided to use the Armada name in order to capitalize on previous DDoS presence.
The email looks something like this:
Over 100 businesses have received the email threats according to CloudFlare CEO Matthew Price. However, not one case of Armada actually launching a DDoS attack has been reported. Price weighs in by saying, ” In fact, because the extortion emails reuse Bitcoin addresses, there’s no way the Armada Collective can tell who has paid and who has not. In spite of that, the cybercrooks have collected hundred of thousands of dollars in extortion payments. ”
The Bitcoin fee ranges between 10-50 Bitcoin which is about $4,600-$23,000. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how the collective determines Bitcoin amounts per company.
If you would like to educate yourself in more detail about the information presented in this blog post please visit: How cybercriminals earned $100,000 just by sending a DDoS threat email
