In a joint effort, police in Finland and other international law enforcement agencies helped to shut down dozens of websites offering illegal services used to carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said international police shut down dozens of sites offering so-called 'booster' and 'stresser' services, as part of a joint international operation.
"Operation PowerOFF targets criminal tools available on the open web. Since it was launched in 2018, the international joint operation has seen law enforcement agencies around the world seize and take down websites offering crime-as-a-service," the NBI said in a press release on Wednesday.
The operation is a major international effort led by the US-based Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and coordinated in Europe by Europol.
Authorities in the operation have seized a total of 63 websites considered the world's biggest booter service providers, according to the NBI.
Crime-as-a-service
"Booters are online stress-testing services that are used in carrying out denial-of-service attacks. The cracked-down services include, for example, Ipstresser, Stresserapp and Bootyou," the bureau explained.
Countries involved in the PowerOFF operation, including Finland, have started contacting registered users of the websites in question.
The NBI said users in Finland will be contacted by email, warning them that they are registered on sites that provide illegal services.
"The user will be warned about the site's unlawful nature instructing them to stop using the service, as well as to delete any data and remove any software downloaded for this purpose from their devices," the NBI explained.
The NBI underscored that recipients of the email warnings are "not currently suspected of any offense", adding that receiving the email does not require further actions.
"Websites offering these services may claim to sell legitimate products for cybersecurity testing. In reality, however, these services provide unlawful tools that enable launching DDoS attacks from anywhere to anywhere in the world," it noted.
The law enforcement agency emphasised that DDoS attacks are illegal and can cause major headaches for targeted organisations and companies.
"Consumers may notice DDoS attacks when everyday services, such as online banking or payment terminals in stores, do not work. Unfortunately, booter services are quite commonly used, particularly among young people. For example, 'dossing' [carrying out DDoS attacks] on gaming platforms could very well be their first introduction to cybercrime," the NBI stated.
