Taiwan says some securities firms get blackmail messages, cyber attacks

Capital Securities

07/02/2017 12:34

TAIPEI, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Taiwan said on Tuesday several 
domestic securities and futures firms had experienced cyber 
attacks and at least 10 had been threatened with attacks if they 
did not pay blackmailers. 
    Investigators are looking into emails received by the 
brokerages seeking payment to avert cyber attacks known as 
distributed denial of service (DDoS). 
    Such attacks are among the most common on the internet. 
    They overload a website until it is forced to inhibit access 
or go offline. It has become a common tool for cyber criminals 
trying to cripple businesses and organisations with online 
activity. 
    "Since the beginning of February to today, 10 securities and 
futures brokerages have received blackmail emails with the home 
page website and electronic ordering system of some of them 
being attacked," the cabinet's cyber security department said in 
a statement. 
    Disruption to service and operation has lasted from 10 
minutes to nearly four hours, it said.   
    The cyber threats and DDoS attacks had not impacted the 
operations of the brokerages, nor investors' rights because 
trading orders can be conducted via non-website methods such as 
telephone, fax or mobile phone apps, the department said. 
    It said the email threatened DDoS attacks on a brokerage's 
website if it did not pay 10 web-based digital currency 
bitcoins, or the equivalent to about T$300,000 ($9,650).   
    The cabinet said it would closely monitor the developments 
and coordinate across agencies "to raise protection levels and 
assist the Financial Supervisory Commission to stabilize 
financial order". 
    On Monday, the Financial Supervisory Commission, the 
island's financial regulator, said five brokerages reported they 
had been targeted. 
    Taiwan's top investigation agency said it was looking into 
the emails that were sent under the name of the Armada 
Collective, a hacking extortion group that has been linked to 
financial blackmail elsewhere.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1FR351 
    The companies affected were mainly smaller domestic 
brokerages, including KGI Securities, Masterlink Securities Corp 
 2856.TW  and its futures brokerage, Capital Securities Corp 
 6005.TW  and its futures brokerage, and the securities arm of 
Cathay Financial Holding Co  2882.TW , according to the cabinet. 
  
($1 = 31.0690 Taiwan dollars) 
 
 (Reporting by J.R. Wu; Editing by Robert Birsel) 
 ((jr.wu@thomsonreuters.com; +886 2 2500 4881; Reuters 
Messaging: jr.wu.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: TAIWAN CYBER/