DDoS platform shut down by international law enforcement agencies

International law enforcement agencies have taken the DDoS-as-a-service platform stresser.tech offline. German criminal authorities such as the LKA Saxony were involved in the operation.

International law enforcement agencies have taken the DDoS-as-a-service platform stresser.tech offline. German law enforcement agencies, such as the Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA Saxony), were involved in the operation.

The investigation was conducted by the Dresden Public Prosecutor General's Office. As part of the international "PowerOFF" operation, the Cybercrime Competence Center of the State Criminal Police Office of Saxony, together with a US investigative authority, shut down the criminal online platform – both abroad and in Germany, the authority stated.

DDoS service: Infrastructure smashed

The Saxon criminal investigators further explained that the IT infrastructure used by the perpetrators has been dismantled. On stresser.tech, cyber criminals were able to buy DDoS attacks, i.e., overload attacks in which many computers simultaneously request websites, causing the servers to become overwhelmed and unable to handle regular requests.

One such attack took place on September 28 last year on the website of the Saxon police. It was initiated on the DDoS platform, the officials explained. During the attack, which lasted around half an hour, both the website www.polizei.sachsen.de and the online watch were unavailable. There was no data breach.

The "PowerOFF" operation has been running since 2022 and is being carried out jointly by international law enforcement agencies: US law enforcement, Europol, the German Federal Criminal Police Office, Dutch National Police Corps, British NCA, and Polish cybercrime police, as listed by the LKA Saxony. PowerOFF aims to shut down internet services that offer DDoS attacks.

Investigations into the operators of the platform are continuing, the Saxon state police concluded in their announcement. The website now displayed at the DDoS service also states that law enforcement officers have confiscated databases and other information on stresser.tech's DDoS services. "Anyone who operates or uses a DDoS service is a target for investigation, prosecution, and other law enforcement actions," law enforcement officials warned the criminal perpetrators.

This action as part of "PowerOFF" took place at almost the same time as Operation PhishOFF on April 17, in which a particularly large phishing-as-a-service service was taken offline. The operation against the Labhost phishing platform resulted in the search of 70 addresses worldwide and the arrest of 37 suspects. Among them are the four suspected operators from the United Kingdom.

(dmk)