Copycats using well-known threat actor names, such as Fancy Bear and Armada Collective, are launching extortion campaigns tied to distributed denial-of-service attacks against financial institutions. Akamai: Extortionists target financial firms, use APT Group Personas to scare the targeted victims into paying. About a dozen of these DDoS attacks have taken place in the U.S. and U.K. since the start of the month. Akamasi is not aware of any organizations that have paid a ransom after being threatened or hit by a DDoS attack.”]
Source: https://www.cuinfosecurity.com/copycat-hacking-groups-launch-ddos-attacks-a-14846