"Hacker Buba" Holds Bank Hostage for $2 Million
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 12/02/2015 10:27 AM [ Comments ]
A hacker, calling himself 'Hacker Buba', has held an Emirates bank hostage this past week.
The Sharjah Bank, an Islamic bank in the emirate of Sharjah, was blackmailed over Twitter on 18 November. The hacker has threatened to release the account information of some of the banks more private customers including corporate officers and government officials.
The ransom? In return for his silence, he is asking for 8,500 bitcoins or £2 million by the weekend, beginning on the 21st of the month.
Officials suspended the twitter account of the hacker, but since the ransom was not paid, he just created a new twitter account and went about tweeting the account statements of 500 of Sharjah Bank's customers.
Hacker Bubs didn't stop there. He also sent out SMS and emails to account holders telling them that he had control of their accounts and demanding that they also pay up.
The bank's CFOO spoke to news outlet XPRESS, admitting that the bank had been blackmailed: “Yes, there was a data breach and we have been contacted by Hacker Buba. He is asking for money but I cannot reveal how much. This is blackmail. We have reported the matter to UAE Central Bank. The Telecom Regulatory Authority's Computer Emergency Response Team is investigating.”
The spokesman downplayed the breach. “We won't give in to any extortion threat. In any case there has been no financial loss. All that this man has is some customer information and he's trying to use it as a bargaining chip," he said.
Source: SCMagazine
The ransom? In return for his silence, he is asking for 8,500 bitcoins or £2 million by the weekend, beginning on the 21st of the month.
Officials suspended the twitter account of the hacker, but since the ransom was not paid, he just created a new twitter account and went about tweeting the account statements of 500 of Sharjah Bank's customers.
Hacker Bubs didn't stop there. He also sent out SMS and emails to account holders telling them that he had control of their accounts and demanding that they also pay up.
The bank's CFOO spoke to news outlet XPRESS, admitting that the bank had been blackmailed: “Yes, there was a data breach and we have been contacted by Hacker Buba. He is asking for money but I cannot reveal how much. This is blackmail. We have reported the matter to UAE Central Bank. The Telecom Regulatory Authority's Computer Emergency Response Team is investigating.”
The spokesman downplayed the breach. “We won't give in to any extortion threat. In any case there has been no financial loss. All that this man has is some customer information and he's trying to use it as a bargaining chip," he said.
Source: SCMagazine
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