Hacker gang extorts 20,000 Bitcoins from three Greek banks

Huitong.com, December 2 - Greek police and the central bank said hackers targeted three Greek banks for the third time in five days and demanded 20,000 bitcoins from each of them .

A group called the Armada Collective launched its first attack last Thursday (November 26), demanding that banks pay them in Bitcoin and threatening to paralyze the banks' websites if their demands were not met.

A police officer said that last Thursday, hackers successfully compromised the electronic transaction systems of three banks in a short period of time, but no customer information was leaked.

"No bank responded, so the hackers launched the same attack over the weekend and today," the officer said on Monday. "But we have stepped up protection and transactions were not disrupted again."

A central bank official added that technical experts from the central bank and the police were continuously monitoring the bank's computer systems.

Since the government introduced capital controls in June, Internet banking has developed rapidly in Greece, with more than 200,000 online banking accounts registered. Against the backdrop of capital controls that limit the number of cash withdrawals, Bitcoin, an electronic virtual currency that is not regulated by the current monetary policy authorities, is particularly popular among the people in the country.

"The attack was extremely serious, but with the help of local internet service providers we are able to ensure and strengthen network security," said a senior Greek banker.

Paul Vlissidis, technical director of information security organization NCC, believes that the Armada Collective group is trying to extort money from companies whose information systems are vulnerable.

"Effectively they said 'give us the bitcoins or we'll wipe you off the internet' and they claim to be able to carry out a large number of similar attacks," he explained, adding that the ransom was only worth a few thousand pounds and it was entirely possible that their targets would settle privately.

However, Vlissidis said there was no evidence that hackers from the Armada Collective, or any other group, were trying to launch the same attack.

Several email providers claim their servers have been hacked by a group called the Armada Collective, and in September the Swiss government warned that the group was trying to extort local email providers.

Geneva startup ProtonMail was hacked earlier this month, while similar companies HushMail, VFEMail and RunBox were also targeted during the attack.