Three Greek banks hacked and demanded 20,000 Bitcoins in ransom

Hackers yesterday launched a third cyberattack on three Greek banks, demanding 20,000 bitcoins (worth 7 million euros) as ransom from each of them, according to Greek police and the country's central bank.

A hacker group calling itself the Armada Collective launched its first cyber attack on banks last Thursday, demanding a ransom and threatening to launch a full-scale cyber attack on the banks if they refuse to pay.

The hackers initially used a form of distributed denial-of-service attack, forcing the buffers on bank servers to fill up and eventually collapse under the pressure. On Thursday, the hackers temporarily succeeded in disrupting electronic transactions at three banks, but customer information was protected, according to a police official.

The official said on Monday:

"The bank did not respond to the ransom demands, so last weekend and on Monday the hackers tried again to launch a cyberattack on the bank, but we stepped up our precautions in the interim, so no damage occurred."

A central bank official added that cyber experts from the Bank of Greece and the police's e-crime unit were monitoring the bank's computer systems.

Internet finance in Greece has grown rapidly since the government introduced capital controls in June, which have stifled banks, threatened the financial system and forced Greece out of the eurozone. Since then, more than 200,000 new Internet accounts have been registered to facilitate domestic transactions.

A senior Greek banker said:

"These attacks are very serious, but we are able to gradually improve security with the help of local ISPs."

Paul Vlissidis, technical director of cybersecurity group NCC, said the "Invincible Armada" hacker group had carried out a number of attacks on banks in recent months, attempting to extort money from banks that were vulnerable to attack.

Paul Vlissidis continued: This hacker group said, 'Give us Bitcoin, or we'll completely destroy you.' They claim to be able to cause huge damage to banks, but in fact they are taking advantage of the psychology of some banks spending money to solve problems. "

However, Mr Vlissidis said there was no evidence yet that the latest attack came from the Armada hacker group, but it was possible that it imitated the "similar modus operandi" of the hacker group.

According to the Bank of Greece, the latest hackers demanded 20,000 bitcoins each from three Greek banks as a ransom.

Some email providers said their services had also been attacked by the hacker group calling itself the "Invincible Armada," and in September the Swiss government warned that the group was extorting local email providers.

Original text: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/13f9f65c-978a-11e5-95c7-d47aa298f769.html#axzz3t2Rr0vXR
By Kerin Hope & Peter Campbell
Translator: printemps
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/greek-banks-bitcoin-ransom)