[troels]

We have seen a number of high profile sites being subjected to extortion via ddos. I wonder how many big companies have been paying up and kept silent about it. I also wonder how hard it would be to hire some broad shouldered guys to go and pay the extorter (extortioner?) a not-so-friendly visit, considering how inefficient law enforcement appears to be in this regard.

[rdl]

It's basically been a cost of doing business in certain industries since at least ~2000 -- I remember a bunch of gaming (gambling) companies complaining about huge 80Mbps floods and being extorted back then (often through e-gold, WebMoney, etc.)

[e40]

I seriously doubt the payment is made in person. It's most certainly electronic, possibly even bitcoin based.