UK and Irish police take down 'most prolific' DDoS site
DigitalStress was a DDoS-for-hire service designed to make attacks easy
The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), in collaboration with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the FBI, successfully infiltrated and took down DigitalStress, an online marketplace offering DDoS services.
The joint operation resulted in the arrest of a suspected controller of DigitalStress and the seizure of the digitalstress.su site.
DigitalStress, which operated under the old Soviet Union domain still retained by the Russian authorities, offered DDoS-for-hire or "booter" services, enabling novice users to launch cyberattacks with ease.
In a blog post, Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said that booter services provide an attractive entry point for aspiring cybercriminals, allowing them to commit offences with minimal technical expertise.
As a result of the operation, which involved infiltrating the site and monitoring messages sent by participants, Foster said the authorities had gained valuable knowledge about those involved.
"Anyone using these services while our mirror site was in place has now made themselves known to law enforcement agencies around the world," Foster wrote.
He added that action against such sites is an area of focus for law enforcemet.
"Although traditional site takedowns and arrests are key elements of law enforcement's response to this threat, we are at the forefront of developing innovative tools and techniques which can be used as part of a sustained programme of activity to disrupt and undermine cyber criminal services and protect people in the UK.
The takedown of DigitalStress, described by the NCA as "most prolific DDoS-for-hire service," followed the arrest of the suspected controller earlier in July. The person's identity has not been revealed.
Information gleaned from the surveillance activities will be analysed by the NCA for use in further enforcement activities, with that relating to cybercriminals overseas being passed on to international agencies.
The action against DigitalStress was part of an ongoing international effort named Operation Power Off, and follows an FBI-led takedown of 48 DDoS sites in December 2022.
The last two days have seen a spike in DDoS attacks in Spain, following the arrest in the country of three pro-Russian operatives belonging to the NoName057(16) hacking group.
Network performance management vendor Netscout observed a surge in activity against government and transport sites in particular, after the group declared "holy war" on Spain on 22nd July.
Last week, a report published by CDN and security provider Cloudflare found that 7% of all internet traffic is malicious, with DDoS attacks comprising 37.1% of all app-layer traffic mitigated by the company.