Operation PowerOFF Seizes 53 DDoS Domains, Exposes 3 Million Criminal Accounts

An international law enforcement operation called Operation PowerOFF has dismantled a major DDoS-for-hire criminal network, seizing 53 domains and arresting four people.

• •The operation disrupted access to DDoS services used by over 75,000 cybercriminals and obtained access to databases containing 3 million criminal accounts.
• •21 countries participated in the coordinated action including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the U.K., and the U.S.
• •DDoS-for-hire services allow individuals with minimal technical knowledge to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks against websites, servers, and networks at scale.
• •Authorities found that DDoS attacks are motivated by various reasons including financial extortion, hacktivism, competitive disruption, and some operators disguise services as stress-testing tools.