14 DAY TRIAL // Moonfruit, a UK-based Web hosting company, has taken its servers offline to upgrade them in the face of a massive DDoS attack announced by the Armada Collective group for this week.
Armada Collective is a DDoS-for-Bitcoin extortion group that works by threatening small companies with massive DDoS attacks if they don't pay modest ransoms.
Usually, their modus operandi involves sending out an email to each target and then launching a few smaller DDoS attacks, just to show off their capabilities.
This is exactly what happened with Moonfruit, a small Web hosting company that received threatening emails from Armada Collective and then underwent a series of minor DDoS attacks from December 10 to December 12.
With the main attack planned for today, the company has taken its main servers offline and is installing DDoS mitigation solutions so it can deal with the attack.
These servers also contain all the client websites, who, as you can imagine, didn't take it very well, especially after four consecutive days of downtime.
After the ProtonMail incident where Armada Collective launched similar DDoS attacks but later didn't stop after the ransom was paid, fewer companies are willing to throw money at these criminals who don't live up to their word.
Moonfruit has decided not to pay the usual ransom that Armada Collective asks of its targets, and from its Director's statement, seems to be preparing for the worst.
Moonfruit Update, 14/12/2015: https://t.co/5xkHAshFT9 and your sites will be offline today. Please read: https://t.co/w2CvVG1xqQ
— Moonfruit (@moonfruit) December 14, 2015