Operation Power Off: 13 More Booter Sites Seized

Prolonged law enforcement efforts continued this week after US authorities announced they had seized 13 Internet domains associated with DDoS contract services.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) yesterday described the action as a “third wave” of disruption. This is intended as a so-called “booter” service designed to make launching her DDoS attacks relatively easy for budding cybercriminals.

Read more about DDoS-for-hire: Booter Boss smashed for 13 months.

However, 10 of the 13 domains removed by law enforcement were linked to previous domains already seized in a cleanup that removed 48 booter services in December 2022. For example, “cyberstress.org” appeared to be similar to the service operating under the domain “cyberstress.us” that was seized in December, reports the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

This highlights the challenges police face in tackling online crime.

But they are trying to bring some of the perpetrators to justice. The DoJ announced Monday that four of her defendants, who were indicted as part of the final Booter “sweep,” pleaded guilty to operating or participating in the operation of Booter’s service earlier this year.

Four men between the ages of 19 and 37 living in Florida or Texas were linked to the following booter services: SecurityTeam.io; Astrostress.com; and Booter.sx.

“Victims attacked by such services, or who provide Internet services to victims, often “over-provision,” i.e., use increased Internet bandwidth to absorb the attack. You have to pay, subscribe to a DDoS protection service, or purchase a dedicated service. It’s hardware designed to mitigate the effects of DDoS attacks,” said an affidavit supporting the foreclosure warrant filed this week.

“The price of such over-provisioning or DDoS protection services is typically much more expensive than the cost of a particular booter service.”

Before seizing a domain, the FBI would open an account with the relevant service provider, pay for a subscription, and launch test DDoS attacks against government-owned web properties to determine if the functionality offered was legitimate. Check if

In an ongoing campaign against such sites, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) recently operated a fake booter site designed to collect information about potential customers. clarified.