iBetX, the UK-based online betting exchange, has become the latest online bookmaker to be targeted by cyber extortionists.

The company's website was temporarily off line from Thursday evening (15 April) until early Friday morning (16 April) as a result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack which flooded the site with spurious requests.

In recent weeks several major British bookmakers havecome under similar attacks: they include William Hill, Totalbet, UKbetting and Sporting Options. None are believed to have given in to demands.

iBetX.com director Imraan Malik maintained this common front: "The bottom line is that we will not give into extortion and we will work with the UK National High-Tech Crime Unit to safe guard our business and help trace and track down the perpetrators."

iBetX is assuring subscribers that their personal details remain safe despite the attack, which did not affect the integrity of its site. "Furthermore, there was no material loss to the business nor did any customer suffer any loss," it added. ®

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