On October 21, 2016 there was a DDoS attack that efficiently shut down several internet services for an extended period of time. Some of the websites include Github, Twitter, Spotify, The New York Times, Pinterest, Netflix, and many, many others. As a precaution in case of further attacks, banks are now stockpiling Bitcoin to pay off hackers if an attack is underway. Bitcoin are the preferred currency of online criminals due to their anonymity and difficulty to trace.
The reason the hackers were able to take down so many different websites at once is because they attacked a DNS hosting company, Dyn. Many popular and high-traffic websites use Dyn, and this made the attack much stronger than launching it on each website individually.
Banks have taken notice of the recent attacks, and now some are looking at several different options of how to minimize losses that may incur from said attacks. While no policy has been confirmed as of now, it appears that many banking companies believe that a bribe in the form of the online currency may cost them less money than suffering an attack.
It is currently unknown which particular businesses are taking this route, and it may remain that way for the foreseeable future. Only time will tell if this pay off method will be a worthwhile option. There is some worry that this kind of negotiation will cause more criminal groups to increase threats and attacks in hopes of making easy money, but hopefully that is not the case. Depending on what happens in the future, other companies, not just banks, may look into bartering with Bitcoin as well.
