欧洲刑警组织周四表示，来自21个国家的当局关停了53个域名，并逮捕了4名涉嫌参与分布式拒绝服务（DDoS）操作的人员，这些操作被超过7.5万名网络犯罪分子使用。
这项代号为“断电行动”（Operation PowerOFF）的全球协调行动扰乱了“引导程序”（booter）服务，并扣押及拆除了支持此类DDoS租赁服务的基础设施，包括服务器和数据库。执法机构从缴获的数据库中获得了超过300万个涉嫌犯罪的用户账号数据，并最终向参与者发送了超过7.5万封电子邮件和信件，警告他们停止非法活动。
参与行动的国家官员还执行了25份搜查令，从搜索引擎结果中删除了100多个宣传DDoS租赁服务的URL，并创建了针对搜索此类工具的年轻人的定向搜索引擎广告。该行动目前仍在进行中，主要针对网络犯罪分子用来淹没网站、服务器和网络的IP压力测试器或DDoS引导程序，这些工具会导致合法服务无法访问。
官员们形容，这些DDoS租赁工具极易获取，通常还附带教程，允许非技术人员对各类组织发起攻击。欧洲刑警组织在新闻稿中指出：“这些攻击通常具有区域针对性，用户会针对其所在大陆内的服务器和网站，目标涵盖在线市场、电信运营商和其他基于网络的服务。其动机从好奇心到与黑客行动主义相关的意识形态目的，以及通过勒索或扰乱竞争对手服务获取经济利益不等。”此次行动得到了美国、英国、澳大利亚、德国、日本等多国执法机构的支持。
Authorities from 21 countries took down 53 domains and arrested four people allegedly involved in distributed denial-of-service operations used by more than 75,000 cybercriminals, Europol said Thursday.
The globally coordinated effort dubbed “Operation PowerOFF” disrupted booter services and seized and dismantled infrastructure, including servers and databases, that supported the DDoS-for-hire services, officials said.
Law enforcement agencies obtained data on more than 3 million alleged criminal user accounts from the seized databases, and ultimately sent more than 75,000 emails and letters to participants, warning them to halt their activities.
Officials from the countries involved in the operation also served 25 search warrants, removed more than 100 URLs advertising DDoS-for-hire services in search engine results and created search engine ads to target young people searching for DDoS-for-hire tools.
The operation, which is ongoing, primarily targets IP stressors or DDoS booters that cybercriminals use to inundate websites, servers and networks with junk traffic, rendering legitimate services inaccessible.
Officials described DDoS-for-hire tools as prolific and easily accessible, often including tutorials that allow non-tech savvy people to initiate attacks on various organizations.
“Attacks are often regionally focused, with users targeting servers and websites within their continent, and directed at a wide range of targets including online marketplaces, telecommunications providers and other web-based services,” Europol said in a news release. “Motivations vary from curiosity to ideological purposes linked to hacktivism, as well as financial gain through extortion or the disruption of competitors’ services.”
Operation PowerOFF is supported by multiple law enforcement agencies from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Thailand.
The international crackdown disrupted other popular DDoS-for-hire services in late 2024, netting three arrests and 27 domain takedowns. Authorities in Poland in May arrested four alleged administrators of DDoS-for-hire tools that cybercriminals used to launch thousands of attacks from 2022 to 2025.
