invezz.com
Bitcoin.org, a website that seeks to support the development of Bitcoin by hosting a copy of the blockchain’s open-source code, has suffered a significant distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The website’s owner, who goes by the pseudonym Cobra, unveiled this news through a tweet earlier today, saying that the hackers behind this attack demanded ransom in Bitcoin (BTC/USD). However, the amount of BTC the attackers are demanding remains unknown.
https://t.co/OsFgRFRRZb getting hit with an absolutely massive DDoS attack and a ransom demand to send Bitcoin or they'll continue.
— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) July 5, 2021
I don't think I've been this offended in a while. Ungrateful scum.
He added that he has never thought of using Cloudflare but this attack helps him understand why other people do. According to him, it was easy to deal with DDoS attacks in the past. However, times have changed, and malicious individuals can shut you down at will, leaving you helpless until they decide to leave you alone.
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This news comes as Cobra and Bitcoin.org continue facing difficulties. For instance, Cobra lost a copyright infringement case to Craig Wright in London’s High Court through a default judgment. Explaining why he did not show up in court, Cobra said he did not wish to disclose his identity only to defend himself against nonsense.
DDoS attacks continue haunting the crypto space
While the attack on Bitcoin.org might seem unusual, seeing as the website does not hold any information on BTC users or funds, this is not the first time the website has suffered a DDoS attack. In December last year, Bitcoin.com suffered a similar attack that rendered it inaccessible for a few hours.
Per Cobra, these attacks are common when BTC is trading close to its all-time high (ATH). However, this theory does not fit in, because BTC is currently changing hands at $34,100.22 (£24,631.44). This figure denotes a 47.35% plunge from its ATH of $64,863.10 (£46,852.24).
Apart from Bitcoin.org, hackers have used DDoS attacks on leading crypto exchanges, such as Binance, Bitfinex, OKEx, Huobi, and even the now-defunct BTC-e. The exchanges had varying reasons that could have led hackers to target them with DDoS attacks. For instance, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao said that the exchange’s rivals had orchestrated the attack to harm its reputation. An OKEx spokesperson pointed out that the hack attempted to disrupt normal traffic on its exchange’s server by flooding it with internet traffic.