Online Extortion Suprisingly Common
"It's the kind of E-mail that grabs you by the collar and doesn't let go. On a Saturday afternoon last January, a message hit the in-box of BetCBSports.com, threatening to knock the online gambling site offline in prime sports-betting season if the company didn't pay up.
'You have 3 choices. You can make a deal with us now before the attacks start. You can make a deal with us when you are under attack. You can ignore us and plan on losing your Internet business,' the E-mail read.
It was no bluff. Within three hours, the site was taken down by what's known as a distributed denial-of-service attack. The first attack lasted five minutes...
Such threats happen more often than most people realize."
Read the rest of this article from Information Week here.
