Fark linked up this LA Times story detailing a nifty effort to disassemble the latest in a long line of protection schemes:

Rather than brass knuckles and baseball bats, the weapons of choice for these digital extortionists are thousands of computers. They use them to launch coordinated attacks that knock targeted websites off-line for days, or even weeks, at a time.

The shakedowns generate millions of dollars. Many Internet operators would rather pay protection money than risk even greater losses if their websites go down.

Reminds me a lot of how Clifford Stoll helped break a hacking ring back in the 80s.