The United States Department of Justice announced earlier today that the FBI has seized domains from 15 ” DDoS-for-hire ” websites and charged three people with some of these services. DDoS-for-hire or “Booter ” or ” Stresser ” services rent out access to a network of infected devices that can then be used by anyone, even the least tech – savvy person, to launch distributed denial – of – service (DDoS) attacks against and disrupt access to any website. In recent years, several hacking groups have ruined the Christmas Day for millions of gamer by using massive DDoS attacks on PlayStation, Xbox networks and other gaming servers. In April of this year, the Netherlands police dismissed the world’s largest DDoS-for-hire service known as Webstresser, which helped cyber criminals launch more than 4 million attacks and arrested its administrators. “The action against the DDoS services comes the week before the Christmas holiday, a period historically plagued by prolific DDoS attacks in the gaming world.” The 15 booter domains that sold and seized by the FBI on Thursday access to DDoS attacks under the guise of network stress testing services include: critical-boot.com ragebooter.com anonsecurityteam.com downthem.org quantumstress.net booter.ninja bullstresser.net defcon.pro str3ssed.me defianceprotocol.com layer7-stresser.xyz netstress.org request.rip torsecurityteam.org Vbooter.org These DDoS-for-Hire services were allegedly used to target a wide range of victims in the United States and abroad, including financial institutions, universities, Internet service providers, government systems and various gaming platforms. On 12 December, the United States The Pennsylvania Attorney’s Office also charged David Bukoski, 23, with the operation of Quantum Stresser— one of the longest running DDoS services with more than 80,000 customer subscriptions since its launch in 2012. In 2018 alone, Quantum Stresser was used to launch more than 50,000 ” actual or attempted ” DDoS attacks, including in Alaska and California, against victims worldwide. “DDoS for rental services such as these pose a major national threat,” the United States said. Bryan Schroder, attorney. “Coordinated investigations and prosecutions such as these demonstrate the importance of cross-district cooperation and coordination with public sector partners. “In addition to the seizures of 15 booter services, the FBI also filed criminal complaints against two alleged cybercriminals— Matthew Gatrel, 30 and Juan Martinez, 25 — allegedly affiliated with the DDoS-for-hire services known as DDoS-for-hire services. The recent crackdown servers are a warning not only to other DDoS peddlers, but also to users who rent these services, as the FBI warns that anyone who pays for these services will be prosecuted.
