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cageymaru
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The Justice Department has announced the seizure of 15 websites that were offering DDoS-for-hire services and the filing of criminal charges against the three individuals that ran them. Distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS attacks cripple computer networks by flooding the targeted computers with information until they can no longer access the internet. Typical targets of DDoS attacks are financial institutions, universities, internet service providers, government systems, and various gaming platforms. Some of the websites seized include critical-boot.com, ragebooter.com, downthem.org and quantumstress.net. The week leading to the Christmas holiday is typically when gaming services are hit the hardest by DDoS attacks.
Matthew Gatrel and Juan Martinez are charged with conspiring to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by operating services called Downthem and Ampnode. Downthem was used to attack other internet users and Ampnode offered resources to create standalone DDoS services by customers. The DDoS services had 2000 customer subscriptions and had launched over 200,000 attacks between October 2014 and November 2018. The third defendant, David Bukoski, was charged with aiding and abetting computer intrusions. His DDoS service called Quantum Stresser had over 80,000 customer subscriptions and launched over 50,000 DDoS attacks in 2018 alone.
"DDoS attacks are serious crimes that can cause real harm, as shown by the wide range of sectors allegedly victimized in this case," said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. "The operators and the customers of DDoS-for-hire services should be on notice that the Department of Justice will aggressively prosecute those who perpetrate malicious cyber attacks." "DDoS for hire services such as these pose a significant national threat," said U.S. Attorney Schroder. "Whether you launch the DDoS attack or hire a DDoS service to do it for you, the FBI considers it criminal activity," said FBI Assistant Director Gorham. "Working with our industry and law enforcement partners, the FBI will identify and potentially prosecute you for this activity. We will use every tool at our disposal to combat all forms of cybercrime including DDoS activity."
Matthew Gatrel and Juan Martinez are charged with conspiring to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by operating services called Downthem and Ampnode. Downthem was used to attack other internet users and Ampnode offered resources to create standalone DDoS services by customers. The DDoS services had 2000 customer subscriptions and had launched over 200,000 attacks between October 2014 and November 2018. The third defendant, David Bukoski, was charged with aiding and abetting computer intrusions. His DDoS service called Quantum Stresser had over 80,000 customer subscriptions and launched over 50,000 DDoS attacks in 2018 alone.
"DDoS attacks are serious crimes that can cause real harm, as shown by the wide range of sectors allegedly victimized in this case," said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. "The operators and the customers of DDoS-for-hire services should be on notice that the Department of Justice will aggressively prosecute those who perpetrate malicious cyber attacks." "DDoS for hire services such as these pose a significant national threat," said U.S. Attorney Schroder. "Whether you launch the DDoS attack or hire a DDoS service to do it for you, the FBI considers it criminal activity," said FBI Assistant Director Gorham. "Working with our industry and law enforcement partners, the FBI will identify and potentially prosecute you for this activity. We will use every tool at our disposal to combat all forms of cybercrime including DDoS activity."