Child porn threat to betting site
Date: October 27, 2004Source: BBC News
Online betting site Blue Square has been attacked by criminals threatening to e-mail out child pornography in its name unless it pays 7000 euros (£4,863).
Extortionists have already threatened gambling sites with "denial of service" attacks, which make sites inaccessible through multiple information requests.
But after a five-hour online attack this week, blackmailers phoned Blue Square to make the child porn threat.
UK computer crime investigators have called it a "sinister development".
Threatening call
The normal operating method of the cyber criminals is to bombard websites, and thus paralyse them and halt trading, by sending thousands of false requests for information to them.
While an attack is under way it can make it impossible for the public to access the sites.
On Monday, Blue Square was sent an initial blackmailing e-mail from an internet address in Serbia.
It read: "You have time until 5pm your local time. I will now start an attack for one hour. This will be 1/20 of the power I can do."
It went on to demand that 7000 euros was paid into an account.
Blue Square repelled the computer attack, and a man with an Eastern European accent phoned the firm's IT director in London on Tuesday.
He threatened to send out child pornography e-mails in the company's name, unless the money was paid within two days.
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