Operation PowerOFF: US Authorities Shut Down 13 DDoS Service Providers

The US authorities have now slowed down the business of several DDoS-for-hire services. As part of an initiative to combat risks from the Internet, action was taken against 13 corresponding offers, the Ministry of Justice announced.

The providers describe their services as “booter” or “stressor” services, which are said to enable website operators to test the robustness and stability of their infrastructure. However, they are mainly used to attack third-party websites with DDoS attacks. There are a variety of motivations, ranging from revenge to blackmail.

In view of this, an international law enforcement initiative called “Operation PowerOFF” is currently targeting such offers. As part of this, 13 domains have now been confiscated by the authorities, which were used to market the relevant services. “10 of the 13 domains seized today are reincarnations of services seized in a previous operation in December that targeted 48 booter services,” the Justice Department said. The fact that the services were already active under the new name was indicated in part by the fact that investigators were able to log into customer accounts with their previous login data.

Multiple charges filed

As the Ministry of Justice further announced, charges have now also been filed against four people who were identified during the December action. They now have to answer to the court for computer fraud and some other offenses, it said.

Ultimately, domain confiscation is of limited use, since it is of course relatively easy for the operators of the services to simply use a different address. Nevertheless, this first disrupt the business with the services. In addition, the blocking often provokes activities that open up new opportunities for the investigators to get hold of the operators of the DDoS services.