Authorities in Poland have arrested four people allegedly involved in operating six “DDoS-for-hire” platforms. It is estimated that these platforms have been used to carry out thousands of DDoS attacks since 2022, targeting schools, government agencies, private businesses and gaming websites.
Although such platforms are often advertised as testing tools, in practice they are exploited to cause massive outages (DDoS). DDoS is a form of cyberattack that aims to disrupt the services of a system or website, making it inaccessible to users. In essence, this attack causes an overload of system resources, making it unable to respond to user requests.
See also: Romania elections: Russian hackers carried out DDoS attacks
The DDoS services, which operated under the names Cfxapi, Cfxsecurity, neostress, jetstress, quickdown and zapcut, were disabled as part of an international police operation, with the participation of forces from Germany, the Netherlands, the US and Poland.
According to the Europol announcement , the arrests and closure of the services are another blow to the illegal market for renting DDoS platforms, as the suspects managed an entire network of websites that allowed the launch of massive digital attacks on a global scale .
As the service pointed out, these tools were designed to be very user-friendly, requiring no specialized knowledge. The user simply had to enter the target's IP address, select the type of attack and its duration , and pay via subscription or one-time payment.
The data collected by the Dutch police from the platforms was analyzed jointly with international partners, ultimately leading to the arrest of four administrators in Poland, who were allegedly associated with the DDoS platforms.
See also: NoName057(16) targets Dutch organizations with DDoS attacks
As part of the broader operation, US authorities seized nine domain names associated with these illegal services, while Germany actively contributed to the identification of one of the suspects and provided information on others involved.
At the same time, the Dutch police developed their own fake booter sites, which mimicked real DDoS-for-hire platforms. Through them, they informed visitors that using such services is illegal and under constant monitoring, with possible criminal consequences.
The latest developments are part of the broader international campaign “Operation PowerOFF”, an ongoing initiative that began in December 2018, when 15 websites offering paid DDoS services were seized.
As part of the same operation, authorities had previously taken down the Dstat.cc website, shut down DigitalStress in the UK , and arrested two more administrators in Poland.
Other operations have also taken place, in which international authorities have seized 13 domains and another 48 in a subsequent wave of checks (all linked to platforms that offered illegal DDoS attacks on demand).
See also: 2024: Cloudflare blocks record number of DDoS attacks
🔒 Protect your privacy with Proton VPN
Swiss VPN from the creators of Proton Mail — strict no-logs policy, strong encryption, and built-in NetShield that blocks ads, trackers, & malware.
- ✔ No-logs, based in Switzerland (except 14-Eyes)
- ✔ NetShield: blocks ads, trackers & malicious domains
- ✔ Covers all devices — free version available
The link is an affiliate link — SecNews may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. It does not affect the independence of our article writing.
Preventing DDoS attacks
• Educate employees about DDoS attacks
• Update applications, software, and systems
• Implement robust network monitoring tools and detection systems to quickly identify suspicious traffic patterns
• Use risk assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities in the network infrastructure
• Implement a Captcha challenge to control automated bots
• Configure firewalls to filter suspicious traffic patterns and block traffic from known malicious IP addresses
source: www.bleepingcomputer.com
