The European criminal police agency Europol has put an end to the activities of many sites that sold DDoS attacks (by distributed denial of service) intended to paralyze sites, companies or institutions.
What Europol tells us this Thursday is what is called, neither more nor less, than a vast dragnet, excuse me. Thanks to once again international cooperation, the European agency based in The Hague (Netherlands) has managed to remove ” around 50 of the largest startup services in the world ”, which were known as DDoS attack marketplaces, these cyberattacks that send millions of false connections with the aim of disrupting or even blocking a site or a server.
Most Popular DDoS Services Taken Down
About 50 platforms allowing any buyer to launch distributed denial of service attacks have therefore been taken offline thanks to an international crackdown on DDoS service providers. The operation, called “Power Off” (which can literally be translated as “extinguish”), was carried out thanks to the collaboration of American, British, Dutch, Polish and German law enforcement agencies.
Europol explains that the services seized were “ by far the most popular DDoS startups on the market, receiving the highest ratings on search engines. One of the disabled services had been called upon to carry out more than… 30 million DDoS attacks.
The European agency adds that several arrests have taken place: seven platform administrators were apprehended in the United States and the United Kingdom between Wednesday and Thursday. New actions against the users of these illegal services should quickly be undertaken.
The previous Webstresser, a huge DDoS marketplace dismantled a few years ago
Europol insists on the decisive aspect of international police cooperation in this case. ” It was essential to the success of these operations because the administrators, users, critical infrastructures and victims were scattered all over the world. », Explains the European agency.
In any case, this global operation follows on from previous editions of the Power Off operation, which had already resulted in the closure of Webstresser in 2018, at the time the largest DDoS marketplace in the world. The service then totaled 136,000 users and 4 million attacks measured in April 2018. Some illegal services were even accessible from 15 euros per month, delivering paralyzing DDoS attacks to sponsors who then had little or even no skill or technical knowledge.
In any case, Europol’s Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) has once again proven its effectiveness. This working group, launched in September 2014 and located in the premises of the European organization, helps to fight against cybercrime, inside and outside the EU, by facilitating international cooperation.
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