The US Department of Justice has seized 48 Internet domains and charged six suspects for their involvement in running ‘Booter’ or ‘Stresser’ platforms that allow anyone to easily conduct distributed denial of service attacks.
“Some sites use the term”stresser” in an effort to suggest that the service could be used to test the resilience of one’s own infrastructure; however, as described below, I believe this is a façade and that these services exist to conduct DDoS attacks on victim computers not controlled by the attacker, and without the authorization of the victim,” reads an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Elliott Peterson out of the Alaska field office.
In many cases, the platforms’ owners themselves promote deals and coupons on cybercrime sites or use affiliates who earn commissions for promoting the service.
As part of a more extensive operation against DDoS platforms, dubbed Operation PowerOFF, the FBI and international law enforcement are seizing 48 Internet for stressor and booter platforms worldwide.
Once the domains have officially been seized and transferred to DNS used by law enforcement, they will display a seizure message warning that these services are illegal, as shown below.
The FBI is also working with the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency and the Netherlands Police to display ads in search engines when people search for booter services.
