Blackmailers target Online Gambling Sites

Prolexic Technologies, the specialist in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection services, today reported a troubling trend in DDoS attacks targeted at online gambling sites, with multiple attacks accompanied by extortion letters.

During the past month, more than two dozen online gambling companies have come under attack and been targeted using similar attack methods. In recent days, multiple businesses in the online gambling sector have received extortion emails, demanding payments of up to US$50,000 to prevent new waves of DDoS attacks. The blackmail attempts have included escalation clauses, warning of increased size or frequency – as well as time-related price increases to stop them.

“The online gambling industry should be on high alert,” said Neal Quinn, chief operating officer at Prolexic. “This appears to be a coordinated global threat. This is a focused level of effort accompanied by blackmail tactics, targeting a single industry in a compressed time frame.”

All the extortion attempts have mentioned DDoS capabilities associated with the Dirt Jumper DDoS toolkit, which the Prolexic Security Engineering and Response Team (PLXsert) first reported in a December threat advisory. The latest version of Dirt Jumper, v5, includes specific anti-DDoS functionality, designed to thwart protection services.

“Business in all industries should be vigilant against Dirt Jumper 5,” Quinn added. “Our experience shows that new DDoS threats frequently come to market in the online gambling industry before spreading to other targets.”