Meetup.com, a social networking site focusing on connecting people within local communities, has declined to pay ransom to cyber criminals who attacked the site, keeping it offline for the last few days.
The site gained popularity as it served as a venue for people sharing the same interests and as of this writing, has 17 million members. It was estimated that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 people who sign up for Meetup.com daily.
The cybercriminals executed a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, a type of attack which makes website go offline by targeting them with an overwhelming amount of traffic. According to a blog posted by the company, the attackers failed to get any pertinent data, and their database is safe, including personal and credit card information.
The attackers required a ransom of $300 from Meetup but the company refused to pay stating that if they will do so, it might encourage the attackers to hack the site again and demand for a higher ransom fee.
"It's a cat and mouse game", Meetup CEO Scott Heiferrman said to Reuters. "Payment could make us (and all well-meaning organizations like us) a target for further extortion demands as word spread in the criminal world," he added.
It was the first time that the site was attacked and according to Kevin Johnson, chief executive of Secure Ideas, a cybersecurity consultancy, sites like Meetup are prone to DDoS attacks.
"It's very common for this sort of attack to start off with a small demand," Johnson said to Reuters. "It's not like Meetup can write a cheque for a million dollars."
The blog post also stated that the company will work harder to protect the site even though they had admitted that they really found it hard to stay online since the attack.
The U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is already investigating the attack.
