Russian hacker blackmailed gambling companies
Date: July 29, 2004Source: Computer Crime Research Center
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Police cleared out that the young man didn't trim money out of a neighbour small shop, but from huge international companies and that he became a player of another criminal case initiated against him in England. British officers came to Saratov, Russia on purpose in order to watch the arrest of the supposed leader of the criminal group.
All criminals' identities involved in the extortion have already been established, though police managed to catch only some of them. A hacker group hacked Internet sites of different companies and offices and tried to make hay on them. Hackers of Saratov even reached England with their "long arms": they made a series of virtual attacks on online gambling companies. After a regular attack that blocked access to the online source hackers made a demand that a certain fee should be paid. Bookmakers at once met demands and paid money in order not to complicate their work. However, after several successful operations police managed to track down and neutralize criminals.
A 21-year old man of Saratov, Russia was the original mastermind of the electronic racket; he allegedly thought up to use DDoS attacks to make easy money. Experts believe that it is almost impossible to protect anyone from these attacks and everyone who has certain computer skills could use this scheme. Initially estimated losses of the British companies incurred by Saratov hackers amount to hundreds of thousands of US dollars.
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