Earlier this month, it was revealed that a website offering DDoS attack-for-hire services had been taken offline by law enforcement, after collecting data on the criminals’ customers.
Visit DigitalStress’ website today and you’ll no longer see boastful messages promising “easy network stress testing” and “no logs” for just $80 a month.
Instead, you’ll see a landing page that will look familiar to anyone who has visited other cybercrime sites seized by authorities as part of Operation PowerOff.
Part of the message is as follows:
The National Crime Agency has collected a large amount of data from people who visit this domain. This data will be shared and acted upon by international law enforcement agencies. Individuals in the UK who visit this site will be contacted by law enforcement agencies.
Operation PowerOFF will continue to target the market for DDoS attacks and ensure that users are held accountable for their criminal activity.
Operation PowerOff is an ongoing, long-running, multinational law enforcement operation against “booter” sites that allow anyone to easily launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, denying legitimate users access to websites.
At the same time, police in Northern Ireland arrested a man suspected to be “Schiop,” one of the administrators of the Digital Stress website.
Anyone considering launching a DDoS attack is advised to take note of this portion of a message posted by the NCA on the now-seized DigitalStress website:
The National Crime Agency has operated and may continue to operate services similar to this site.
In March 2023, British police revealed that they were actually operating fake DDoS attack-for-hire websites to gather information on criminals.
As the UK’s NCA explained in a press release about the DigitalStress seizure, the company “gained covert and open access to communications platforms which were being used to discuss launching DDoS attacks.”
“We are watching you”, the NCA warned on Telegram, a platform favoured by cybercriminals.
“We continue to work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to disrupt the activities of those who use cyber technology to cause harm, both locally and globally,” said Chief Inspector Paul Woods, Police of Northern Ireland. “Today’s welcome announcement will send a clear message to all cyber criminals that no matter their motivation or method, they are not beyond identification and investigation.”
