The Charity Commission in the United Kingdom has issued an alert toward all charities about an extortionist group demanding between £300 – £500 in bitcoin (approx. 1.03 to 1.72 BTC) or face cyberattacks, if the ransom isn’t paid up.
In an alert issued toward UK-based charities today, the Charity Commission has revealed that a cyber-extortion group calling themselves the “RepKiller Team” are threatening businesses around the UK with their extortionist demands.
The group is unlike other cyber-criminal extortionist groups who normally operate with distributed denial of service (DDoS) capabilities. As the name suggests, the “RepKiller Team”, as the alert advisory states, launch cyberattacks against organizations by inundating the web with negative reviews of the business, in their hundreds.
The threat essentially is to damage the target’s reputation, which is so often looked up with a quick google search online.
The extortionist group have made several attempts of blackmailing UK businesses over the past week, according to reports being gathered at Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud reporting center.
This advice is particularly relevant for those charities which operate overseas and/or deal with international partners in high risk zones.
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The group have sent emails demanding payment of between £300 – £500 in Bitcoins [a form of digital or ‘crypto’ currency] by a certain date and time. […] [Do] NOT meet their demands and pay the ransom. The demand, delivered by email, also contends that once the group’s smearing campaign begins, it “cannot be undone.”Head of investigations and enforcement operations at the Commission, Carl Mehta said in a statement:Charities need to be aware of the imminent danger posed by this fraudulent group and take appropriate steps to protect their charity’s assets and good reputation- both of which could be damaged if the ransom demands of the group are met.The […]
