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Global Extortion: Online Gambling and Organized Hacking
A new trend in extorting money from sports and gambling Web
sites isn't going away like security
experts had predicted. Online gambling Web sites began receiving
e-mail threats in October of last year. The messages contained
demands for money to prevent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)
attacks that would shut down the targeted Web site.
Internet security experts urged caution. They theorized that
the threats would reach a peak with the Super Bowl game and then
fade away. They didn't. Instead, this new twist on the
traditional extortion racket is spreading to financial and other
gambling Web sites on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Some security experts privately suggested to TechNewsWorld
that large crime syndicates are behind the attacks on sports and
gaming Web sites. They said the ability to carry out e-mail
attacks on Web site operators who refused to pay protection
money shows the involvement of organized crime with hackers and
virus writers.
It could be the first clear indication, they warned, that
criminals are activating the legions of compromised computers
infected with the SoBig and MyDoom viruses and worms that open
back-door access to hackers.
Internet security experts say there is little doubt about the
involvement of international crime gangs in these e-mailed
threats. Thomas Patterson, a former regional partner overseeing
EMEA for Deloitte & Touche Security Services Group, said it
takes criminals with money to assemble the machinery to
orchestrate the e-mail attacks.
"Organized crime has always been about money, and there is
definitely money at the end of a hostile or fraudulent Internet
attack," he said. "Some of these larger-scale scams do cost some
money to put together. They are likely to be based in countries
that do not yet have sophisticated computer security
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