The largest cyberattack ever suffered by Greek banks, demanding ransom in bitcoins, occurred late yesterday afternoon, according to EXCLUSIVE information reported by Mononews.
According to confirmed and undisputed information, Russian hackers “attacked” the electronic systems of 2 large systemic banks, demanding a ransom of 750 bitcoins. In essence, as Mononews reports, they threatened that if the ransom is not paid (the amount is obviously symbolic) then a much more powerful DDoS attack will be carried out. And as additional information that emerged after a thorough investigation confirms, they intend to turn their words into actions!
Information that emerged from the SecNews report, and which we are conveying with all reservations, states that a red alert has been issued to the Banks for today, Monday 30/11/2015, for a DDoS attack related to the payment of ransom!!! .
The information being checked indicates that a DDoS attack (distributed denial of service attack with a total volume of network traffic of 1TB (!!!) will take place at approximately 12 o'clock, while there is also a crisis management scenario that foresees the closure of the banks' electronic services if and when such a thing is deemed necessary!!!
The seriousness of the issue was such that the Commander of the Hellenic Security Service, Yiannis Roumpatis (one of the first to receive the extremely worrying information about the cyber threat) IMMEDIATELY informed Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the information was brought to his attention, raising a red alert!
The head of the Hellenic Police's Cybercrime Directorate, Manolis Sfakianakis, was also immediately informed to contribute with his staff to the full investigation and clarification regarding the cyber extortion, as well as the governor of the Bank of Greece, Yiannis Stournaras. The role of the National CERT (which always operates in the background with very important successes that have not seen the light of publicity) in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency (DIE) fully assumed management of the crisis.
Immediately and as expected, it also raised alarm bells in the administrations of Greek banks as no one could understand whether this was a large or small attack. Furthermore, cyber extortion with demands for bitcoinsis common abroad, but on such a large scale it may be the first time it has been observed!
As it turned out late last night, it was the biggest cyberattack Greece has ever suffered. Russian hackers hit the systems of the two banks, but (as the Greek experts claim) those who conducted the research were not compromised.
As reported by Mononews, on Saturday at noon at 12:00 a meeting was held between government officials involved in the matter and banking officials. In substance and in practice, the issue has been taken over by Mr. Roubatis and Mr. Sfakianakis, with a specialized team of experts.
Information indicates that everything is under full control and that Greek banks are safe. It is not known at this time whether the ransom in bitcoins demanded by the Russian hackers was paid.
Developments will be rapid, as the authorities are very close to solving the case even if the attackers tried to hide their tracks in highly sophisticated ways! Stay tuned!
