Bitcoin.org website had been struck by a distributed denial of service attack and a ransom in Bitcoin is being demanded to return things back to normalcy.
A DDoS attack was purportedly launched against a website dedicated to the advancement of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin.org’s pseudonymous owner, Cøbra, announced today on Twitter that the website had been struck by an “absolutely massive” distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, as well as a ransom demand for an undisclosed sum of Bitcoin (BTC).
“Back in the day, you could defend yourself against most DDoS attacks,” Cøbra remarked. “Now they can just take you down whenever they want. You go down and stay down until they leave you alone; there is no longer a ‘fight.’”
https://t.co/OsFgRFRRZb getting hit with an absolutely massive DDoS attack and a ransom demand to send Bitcoin or they’ll continue.
I don’t think I’ve been this offended in a while. Ungrateful scum.
— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) July 5, 2021
While DDoS attacks have previously targeted big crypto exchanges, it seems rare for attackers to target a site like Bitcoin.org, which does not store any information about cash or customers and instead provides open-source information on the BTC blockchain and cryptocurrency.
In December, the website was subjected to a similar DDoS attack, which caused users to be unable to access the Bitcoin Core software for a few hours.
Binance, OKEx, and Bitfinex were the targets of large DDoS attacks last year.
At the time, CEO Changpeng Zhao claimed that the attack on Binance was carried out by competitors in order to undermine the company’s reputation rather than to steal money.
This isn’t the first time in recent weeks that the website has made headlines. Craig Wright, the man who claims to have invented Bitcoin, has also threatened to sue Bitcoin.org.
Last Monday, a UK court found in Wright’s favour, finding Bitcoin.org guilty of copyright infringement for posting the Bitcoin white paper – Cøbra did not respond to the lawsuit.
The owner of Bitcoin.org remarked at the time, “I didn’t show up because defending against nonsense is a waste of time.”
Following the court order, Bitcoin.org disabled access to the Bitcoin Core software for anyone with an IP address in the United Kingdom.
Any links to the Bitcoin white paper have also been removed from the project.