DDOS Attackers Nailed!

Internet Extortion Ring Smashed

by Beatrice Arnfield
NewsFactor

Law enforcement agencies in the UK and Russia have broken up an extortion and money-laundering ring that targeted sports-betting Web sites in the UK. Three men were arrested in Russia, accused of running a global protection racket.

An extortion and money-laundering ring targeting UK sports-betting Web sites has been smashed by UK and Russian law enforcement agencies, assisted by government agencies and businesses from the U.S., Canada, Australia and Estonia.

Three men were arrested in Russia on July 20th, accused of running a global protection racket and extracting hundreds of thousands of dollars from online sports-betting sites.

DoS Attack

In October 2003, the gang started launching denial of service (DoS) attacks on Web sites belonging to UK sports-betting companies. By overwhelming the servers with messages, they were able to close down the sites and cause millions of dollars in lost business. The gang then sent e-mail demands, asking for money to stop the attacks for one year. However, the gang said in the e-mails that at the end of that year, they would return for more money.

Sports betting agencies in the UK have been subject to attacks and demands for money since October 2003, and officers from the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) have been working closely with their Russian counterparts to track down and arrest the criminals.

Safe for Business

"The success of this operation is built on the foundation of international partnerships between law enforcement and business," detective chief superintendent Len Hynds, head of the NHTCU, said in a statement. "The more we work together in the fight against organized crime, the safer the UK will be for business.

"Thanks to the response of all the parties involved, we have helped to dismantle a determined group of organized criminals. The clear message we are sending is that if you attack firms based in the UK, we will find you and stop you."

In Russia, the NHTCU worked closely over many months with the Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee attached to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and the MVD's computer-crimes specialist department.

"The trend of fraud being conducted online is growing rapidly, and it is really good news that several governments have cooperated on this case," Naftali Bennett, CEO of New York-based Internetsecurity company Cyota, told NewsFactor. "The governments are sending the message that criminals face the risk of being caught, and this will act as a deterrent."

The gang was using a number of legitimate money-transfer agencies to move their money around. The use of the agencies came to light when 10 members of the gang were arrested in Riga, Latvia in November 2003.

The money-transfer agencies cooperated, with the NHTCU in tracking the money and identifying the remaining members of the gang.

Application Gateway

"This type of attack could have been prevented with appropriate software," Yankee Group analyst Phoebe Waterfield told NewsFactor. "Web application gateway software blocks messages going in or out that do not comply with the site's policy.

"There is a growing market for this type of software and there are a number of vendors that sell effective software, including Top Layer Networks, based in Westboro, Massachusetts; Foster City, California-based Imperva; and NetContinuum, which is based in Santa Clara, California."

Good job! These guys were a pain in da 'ass.

BEST NEWS I HAVE HEARD ALL WEEK!!!!

another interesting article in the FT:


http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373888458

Bump for those that may have missed this great news!!

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116975,00.asp

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Online Extortion Ring Broken Up

Three men are suspected of pressuring gambling sites into paying protection money.

Paul Roberts, IDG News Service
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Law enforcement officials in the U.K. and Russia have cracked down on a major extortion ring accused of prying hundreds of thousands of dollars from online sports betting Web sites, according to a statement from the U.K.'s National Hi-Tech Crime Unit.


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Three men, ages 21, 22, and 24, were taken into custody this week in separate arrests in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Saratov and Stavropol regions of southwest Russia. The men have not been charged, but are believed to be part of a ring that uses legions of compromised or "zombie" computers to launch denial of service attacks against online sports betting parlors ("sports books") that refuse to pay protection money, says Felicity Bull, a spokesperson for the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU).

In DoS attacks, Web servers are flooded with junk data and network traffic from thousands of machines, preventing them from responding to legitimate requests.


Under Investigation
The NHTCU is a law enforcement agency that investigates U.K. computer crime. It worked with their counterparts in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), including the MVD's computer crimes specialist department and Investigative Committee, according to a NHTCU statement.

The arrests this week follow a complaint in October 2003, by Canbet Sports Bookmakers UK, which was forced to pay protection money to prevent its Web site from being attacked, Bull says.

NHTCU and Russian investigators used traditional investigative techniques and computer forensics to trace the extortionists back to Russia and identify them, using information on the source of the DoS attacks and money transfer records. Authorities arrested 10 members of the online extortion gang in Riga, Latvia in November 2003. Those arrests led to the men in Russia, Bull says.

Money transfer agencies helped the NHTCU track the funds, and law enforcement agencies in Australia, Canada, Estonia and the U.S. aided in the investigation, the NHTCU says in a statement.


Organized Crime
Authorities believe that organized criminal groups in Russia and other countries run the extortion ring. However, Bull notes that the three men arrested have not yet been charged, that the investigation is continuing and that more arrests are possible. Russian investigators seized computer equipment from the men, which may provide further clues about the criminal gang, she says.

Authorities still do not know how much money the group collected from sports books--though the figure is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars--or how many sports books it extorted, Bull says.

Online sportsbooks use sophisticated Web pages to post odds and collect wagers on a wide range of sporting events. Online sports wagering is illegal in the U.S., but legal in the U.K. and other countries.

In the last year, online sports books have become frequent targets of online criminal gangs that are attracted to the cash-rich virtual betting parlors, which often keep between $300 million and $400 million on hand to cover bets, according to Dave Matthews, site administrator of Las Vegas Advisor, an online publication serving the gaming industry.

Demands for protection money vary, but typically range from $10,000 for small sites to $40,000 or more for larger operations, says Amran Pena, an information technology consultant in San Jose, Costa Rica, who works with online sports books to secure their networks.

Many online sports books that serve the U.S. are based in small countries such as Costa Rica and Belize, which lack the resources or expertise to investigate extortion attempts.

If charged, the three men will be tried in Russia. NHTCU also expect more arrests to follow, Bull says.

"We expect to find more people in the chain. Once you arrest somebody, you start to find out so much more," she says.