Computer criminals have successfully breached a bank located in The Principality of Liechtenstein and are actively blackmailing customers and the institution for a ransom payment.
The Hackers Are Extorting The Affected Clients
According to various media reports the attackers have been able to gain sensitive information about the clients of the financial institution which include actors, politicians and wealthy individuals from Germany and other states. The criminals demand up to 10% of the account balance paid in the Bitcoin crypto currency to abstain from releasing financial information about the clients.
The director of the bank has stated that they have alerted the authorities and that an investigation is ongoing. The hackers are threatening to release the information to the authorities and the media if the ransom fee is not paid by the seventh of December. This suggests that the customers of the financial institution might have something to hide or the criminals are just taking advantage of the situation by blackmailing the customers.
The hackers have even accused the board of the bank for not paying enough money for security services. According to them their true intentions are not to harm the financial and that their extortion techniques are not the primary goal of the attack.
After the Liechtenstein Breach Other Banks Save up for Extortion
According to media reports several large banks located in London have started to stockpile money in Bitcoins to pay computer criminals who threaten their IT security systems.
This means that the financial institutions prefer to pay the criminals to defend themselves against further damage instead of providing stronger security measures. The scale of the attacks that took place in the last few months are a clear indication that even the authorities cannot handle some of the larger malicious campaigns.
According to several reports the Police are notified of the practice. It seems that such decisions are made by the shareholders and board members which are monitoring the aggressive attacks against other institutions.
As the banks are a critical financial institution a potential hacker breach can cause much more damage and in such an event the organization needs to swiftly remedy the problem. Investigations do not lead to quick results and not every one of them can actually apprehend the criminals despite the thousands of dollars that are invested in such activities. This is probably the reason why the banks have adopted such a decision. It may be a last resort scenario but its existence proves that everything is possible.
