EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Webstresser.org, the world’s largest marketplace for buying services to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) cyberattacks, has been taken down. The Dutch-led investigation, which involved the UK and other international law enforcement, arrested the site’s administrators in “Operation Power Off.” Dutch investigators were also responsible for shutting down AlphaBay/Hansa dark web marketplaces last summer.

Cyberattackers use DDoS attacks  to jam websites with fake traffic to knock them offline. Webstresser.org had more than 136,000 registered users and had racked up four million attacks by April 2018, according to a Europol press release. Critical online services offered by banks, government, and police were targets, as well as victims in the gaming industry.

“We have a trend where the sophistication of certain professional hackers to provide resources is allowing individuals – and not just experienced ones – to conduct DDoS attacks and other kind of malicious activities online,” said Steven Wilson, Head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3).

For less than $20 (EUR 15.00) per month, registered users could rent stressers and booters to launch potentially crippling DDoS attacks. This put the power of potentially crippling attacks into the hands of individuals with little to no knowledge.

Get the full story at Europol.