31 august 2021

Bitcoin.org Hit by Massive DDoS Attack

The last two weeks have been challenging for Bitcoin.org. On June the 29th, the website has been ordered to discontinue hosting the copy of the Bitcoin white paper by the High Court of London. And only eight days passed since then when another problem appeared.

This time it was a massive DDoS attack, reported by the pseudonymous operator of the site known as Cobra.

What Is DDoS Attack?

The malicious actions of the attackers Bitcoin.org has undergone were targeted at rendering the system inoperable due to a flood of traffic requests sent to the website host.

This type of cyber-attack is usual in the world of cryptocurrencies and crypto-trading. Among the latest incidents are the attack targeted at Poloniex – the crypto exchange service, and Trezor – the manufacturer of crypto wallets.

The tactics Cobra has chosen to deal with the issue turned to be winning. They ignored the ransomware attack allowing the website to go down and remain so until the attackers lose interest in the case and leave Bitcoin.org alone. By the time of publishing this post, the website functions as usual, and there’s no problem accessing it.

What Were the Motives of the Attackers?

Based on the interview the site’s operator gave to Decrypt, the attackers demanded a ransom of 0.5 BTC, equal to a bit more than $17000 at that time. Anyway, the website managed to get out dry from water and restore after a ransomware attack without losing a penny. However, the situation didn’t come up easy to Cobra. This is clearly seen in the words they say in their post on Twitter: “I don’t think I’ve been this offended in a while. Ungrateful scum.”

What Kind of Website Is Bitcoin.org?

A ransomware attack on Bitcoin.com turned out to be a big surprise as this website is purely educational and doesn’t collect or store any data about users or funds that might be of interest to the attackers. Bitcoin.org started functioning in 2008. It aims to explain and give advice to people, businesses, and anyone new to crypto-trading and Bitcoin trading in particular.

The users of the website can also use it as a directory for finding the tools needed for transacting Bitcoins. Wallets, exchanges, forums, merchants are all gathered there. The goal of Bitcoin.org is to encourage people to cryptocurrency and stimulate the transactions of Bitcoins around the globe.