Schneier: Cyber-extortion on the rise

Security expert Bruce Schneier has warned that cyber-extortion is on the rise, but gave the caveat that it mainly affects “fringe” industries, such as online gambling, rather than critical national infrastructure organisations.

Schneier wrote in a blog post on Tuesday that the security company he founded, Counterpane, has seen proof of attack capability followed by extortion demands — but said the attacks he had seen had not been against power companies. He wrote the blog post in response to a CIA statement, reported by security training body the Sans Institute, that a cyberattack had caused a power blackout in multiple cities in a country outside the US. The CIA also said it had evidence of blackmail demands following demonstrations of successful “intrusions through the internet”.

Full article: ZDNet.co.uk