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Europol Announces Operation Against DDoS-for-Hire Services with Arrests and Warnings
Europol has coordinated an international law enforcement operation targeting for-hire distributed denial-of-service services. The effort included arrests, domain takedowns, and warnings sent to thousands of suspected users. The operation aims to disrupt easy access to tools for launching cyberattacks.
Apr 16, 2:53 PM·1m read1 source
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Europol announced on Thursday an international operation targeting for-hire distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) services. These services enable individuals to launch cyberattacks without advanced skills or infrastructure. The operation, named Operation PowerOFF, involved multiple law enforcement agencies.
As part of the action, authorities sent warning emails and letters to more than 75,000 people suspected of using these services. Europol stated that it obtained user information by raiding and seizing servers associated with the services. This allowed police to identify registered users.
The operation resulted in the arrest of four people.
Authorities also took down 53 domains linked to the DDoS services. Additionally, police executed 24 search warrants during the raids. DDoS attacks can disrupt websites by overwhelming them with traffic.
For-hire services make such attacks accessible to a wider range of individuals. TechCrunch reported that these attacks remain common due to their ease of execution.
In a related example, Cloudflare reported mitigating a DDoS attack last year that peaked at 29.
7 terabits per second, described as the largest to date at that time. The FBI has conducted several operations against similar DDoS-for-hire services in recent years. These efforts highlight ongoing attempts by law enforcement to address cyber threats.
