The New Zealand Internet Task Force (NZITF) advises that an unknown international group has this week begun threatening New Zealand organisations with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. DDoS attacks are attempts to make an organisation’s Internet links or network unavailable to its users for an extended length of time. This latest DDoS threat appears as an email threatening to take down an organisation’s Internet links unless substantial payments in the digital currency Bitcoin are made. New Zealand Internet Task Force (NZITF) Chair Barry Brailey warns the threat is not an idle one and should be taken extremely seriously as the networks of some New Zealand organisations have already been targetted. “The networks of at least four New Zealand organisations that NZITF knows of have been affected, so far. A number of Australian organisations have also been affected,” he says. “This unknown group of criminals have been sending emails to a number of addresses within an organisation. Sometimes these are support or helpdesk addresses, other times they are directed at individuals. The emails contain statements threatening DDoS, such as: “Your site is going under attack unless you pay 25 Bitcoin.”, “We are aware that you probably don’t have 25 BTC at the moment, so we are giving you 24 hours.” or “IMPORTANT: You don’t even have to reply. Just pay 25 BTC to [bitcoin address] – we will know it’s you and you will never hear from us again.” The emails may also provide links to news articles about other attacks the group has conducted. NZITF urges New Zealand firms and organisations to be on the alert. They also suggest that targeted entities don’t pay as even if this stops a current attack, it makes your organisation a likely target for future exploitation as you have a history of making payments. It is also advisable staff be educated and be on the lookout for any emails matching the descriptions above. Have them alert appropriate security personnel within the organisation as soon as possible. Source: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=18336

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DDoS attacks threatens New Zealand organisations