Devon and Cornwall Police have passed on a national warning that within the past 24 hours a number of businesses throughout the UK have received extortion demands from an online hacking group called Lizard Squad.

The group have sent emails demanding payment of 5 Bitcoins to be paid by a certain time and date. The email states that this demand will increase by 5 Bitcoins for each day that it goes unpaid.

If their demand is not met, they have threatened to launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against the businesses’ websites and networks, taking them offline until payment is made.

The demand states that once their actions have started, they cannot be undone.

Police say that if you have received one of these demands, you should report it to the national specialist Police service Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040 or by visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk

Officers advise businesses not to pay the demand, to retain the original emails (with headers) and to maintain a timeline of any attack, recording all times, type and content of the contact.

Tha Action Fraud website has more advice on how to react to any attack, and on how to protect your business.