World’s ‘Most Prolific’ DDoS-for-Hire Service DigitalStress Taken Down, Admin Arrested

• An international law enforcement operation took down the popular DDoS-for-Hire service DigitalStress.
• Ongoing "Operation Power Off" targeting criminal DDoS-for-hire infrastructures worldwide led to the arrest of an alleged admin.
• The DigitalStress criminal marketplace was believed to be responsible for thousands of weekly DDoS attacks.

A DDoS distribution site was disabled following a law enforcement sting dubbed Operation Power Off, as per the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) announcement, which described the DDoS-for-hire service DigitalStress as the world's most prolific operator in the field.

After the takedown, the criminal marketplace website offering DDos capabilities was redirected to a mirror site that announced the NCA takeover. Many criminal services use old Soviet Union domains hoping it will deter law enforcement agencies from carrying out effective investigations, as per the NCA release.

The authorities believe the booter platform, which provided a simple tool for anyone to perform DDoS attacks, was responsible for tens of thousands of such attacks every week.

The NCA also took to communication platforms used by cybercriminals to discuss launching DDoS attacks. One of these said a joint operation by the NCA, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) led to the arrest of a suspected admin and the closure of the DigitalStress website on July 2.

The head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit mentioned law enforcement agencies around the world monitored cybercriminals who were using these services while the mirror site was in place.

The arrest of the unnamed suspect comes after PSNI arrested another one of the site’s suspected operators earlier this month.

An FBI-led international operation in December 2022 targeted tools and services used to commit serious cyber attacks and resulted in the takedown of 48 of the world’s most popular booter sites.

Operation Endgame, an internationally coordinated operation against botnets that targeted the cyberinfrastructure used for malware, including Conti, led to four arrests and the seizure of more than 100 internet servers last month.

In February 2024, law enforcement shut down LockBit's infrastructure in Operation Cronos and seized several servers with decryption keys. Last month, the FBI arrested the alleged leader of the Scattered Spider hacking group and caught a teenager connected to the cybercrime gang.