Cyber Shakedowns On Rise

For any company doing business on the Internet, it's the sound of doom: a computer voice warning of an inbound attack.

Call it a cyber-shakedown: A hacker threatens to shut down a company's Web page, unless the business pays up.

A Wall Street company's security manager, who asked CBS News to protect his identity because he fears another attack, got a hold up note asking for a few thousand dollars.

"We knew it was real when I got a phone call in the middle of the night saying, 'Oh, by the way, all the Web sites are down," he says. "All I could think about was 100 years ago in neighborhoods around New York City, guys showing up saying, 'Pay or the meat doesn't get delivered.'

"This is the same thing only now the people don't actually exist anywhere."

"They're actually all over," says Barrett Lyon, who runs a company that fends off these attacks. "We've seen attackers in Turkey, Kazakhstan, China, Korea, everywhere."

Lyons sees it as an organized crime syndicate.

As CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod

It's kind of like little soldiers in an army, a "zombie army," says Lyon.

When the hacker unleashes his zombie army on a company's Web site, 100,000 computers can suddenly flood a pipe meant for 10,000.

"So just imagine trying to squeeze the ocean through a straw," says Lyon. "So the Web site is functionally disconnected from the Internet."

"Working Internet cases is unlike anything we can do," says David Thomas of the FBI.

The FBI saw its first cyber extortion case five years ago and says the crime is growing "exponentially."

"Our laws can't be effective against people in other countries," says Thomas.

And if you're thinking, "Why should I care?" Lyon says anyone who does online banking or purchases tickets online should be concerned.

Remember the Wall Street security manager? He did not pay, and instead chose to bring in Lyon. But with the growth in this kind of crime, Lyon can't protect everyone.