Europol arrests members of DDOS group DD4BC

Europol, in collaboration with several European law enforcement officers, has arrested members of the criminal group DD4BC, including a prime suspect. Since 2014, the group has been extorting websites with DDOs attacks that only stop when an amount is paid in bitcoins.

A suspect and a main suspect were arrested in the arrests, which took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to Europol, a large amount of evidence was also seized in the action, which was supported by Austria, France, Japan and the US, among others. The group is said to have mainly targeted sites in the online gambling sector and then expanded to include financial service providers.

According to Akamai, the group claimed to be capable of carrying out attacks in excess of 400Gbit/s. A typical scenario would initially consist of a limited ddos ​​attack on a site. After that, the group would send an email explaining that such an attack was being carried out. In the same email, DD4BC asks for an amount in bitcoin and threatens, if payment is not made, with a heavier DDO attack, which would have a strong impact on the victim’s services. The total number of attacks between September 2014 and July 2015 has risen to 141, according to a report by Akamai.

Example of a DD4BC email from the Akamai report