“It’s a threat to do something as opposed to the threat that you’ve already done it. “Generally speaking, DDoS as an extortion method isn’t as profitable as other types of digital extortion,” says Robert McArdle, director of forward-looking threat research at Trend Micro. But in recent months, criminals have attempted to capitalize on fear about high-profile nation state attacks, combined with anxieties related to rising ransomware attacks, to try to make some extra money. This type of digital extortion-give us what we’re asking for and we won’t attack you-has resurfaced repeatedly throughout the last decade. The communications threaten that if the target doesn’t send a set number of bitcoin-typically equivalent to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars-the group will launch powerful distributed denial of service attacks against the victim, walloping the organization with a fire hose of junk traffic strategically directed to knock it offline. In each of them, the senders purport to be from the North Korean government hackers Lazarus Group, or APT38, and Russian state-backed hackers Fancy Bear, or APT28.

On Wednesday, the web security firm Radware published extortion notes that had been sent to a variety of companies around the world. A new wave of attacks relies instead on digital extortion-with a side of impersonation. But even as these hacks reach new popularity highs-and new ethical lows-among attackers, it's not the only technique criminals are using to shake down corporate victims. Ransomware attacks that tear through corporate networks can bring massive organizations to their knees.

Fancy lazarus group