Posted on August 31, 2018 at 6:03 PM
Comic Site Oatmeal Attacked By Monero Crypto Ransomware
The comic website was recently invaded by an unknown user demanding a $300 ransom to end the ransomware attack. The company refuses and goes straight to put a stop to the attack by using a standard DDoS protection.
Cryptocurrency attacks are daily on the increase and one of the latest recorded offense is against a comic book website oatmeal. As gathered, the intention of the ransomware attacker is to extort the comic site of some Monero XMR Tokens.
For three hours, the site was under attack by the anonymous DDOS attacker with a demand of $300 (in Monero) to end it. But rather than agreeing to pay the ransom, the site proceeded to checkmate the attack by using a standard DDOS security protocol.
In a Tweet by the website’s founder Matthew Inman, it was stated that:
Hey everyone, my site is still down from the DDOS attack. I just received this email, which is attempting to extort me for money in order to stop the attack. I'm still figuring out what to do, but I might end up having to switch hosts. Thanks for being patient. pic.twitter.com/kzS33lusnH
— Matthew Inman (@Oatmeal) August 30, 2018
The full details of the Tweet can be seen on Matthew’s Twitter page. There, you get to see the full content of the email sent to the site by the hackers. It should be noted that some details pertaining to the founder has been hidden for security reasons.
It is quite amazing that the ransom demanded was just three times XMR. This is the same as some amount slightly above $300 at the listed price of the Oatmeal.
It is even believed that the hackers were a bit considerate because they said that they are aware that an unknown cryptocurrency such as Monero XMR may give a fresher to space a tough time.
How Oatmeal Got To Be Attacked
Among other reasons, the fact that the comic site had once participated in cryptocurrency is one reason it suffered this attack. Many informed analysts have reported that ransomware connected to cryptocurrency are rising daily.
Monero is a notorious cryptocurrency owing to its anonymous nature. It is repeatedly paraded on different crypto jacking sites. However, genuine followers of Monero have consistently fought cheats using it. Despite the effort of these ones, it is hard blocking hackers with malicious contents and intent completely from the system.
Presently, the status of Monero is still anonymous unless it is utilized on some exchange platforms that require a declaration of identity for any transaction to occur.
Before now when crypto jacking is mentioned, only Bitcoin comes to mind. But with the advent of numerous altcoins with anonymous status now, hackers seem to be having a free time committing all sorts of illegalities.
Latest attacks such as the Oatmeal one shows that a lot still needs to be done by cryptocurrency to address its security protocols. Unless this is done, many investors may not welcome it as it ought to.
