International Crackdown on DDoS-for-Hire Services Seizes 53 Domains
Severity: Medium (Score: 48.9)
Sources: www.cloudflare.com, Mezha, Techcrunch, www.europol.europa.eu, Cyberscoop
Summary
On April 16, 2026, Europol announced the results of Operation PowerOFF, a coordinated effort involving 21 countries that led to the seizure of 53 domains associated with DDoS-for-hire services. Four individuals were arrested, and over 75,000 emails were sent to suspected users of these services, warning them to cease their activities. The operation targeted DDoS booters, which allow users to launch attacks without technical skills. Authorities obtained data from seized servers, revealing over 3 million alleged criminal user accounts. The crackdown aims to disrupt the infrastructure supporting these services and reduce the prevalence of DDoS attacks, which have been increasingly common. The operation is ongoing, reflecting a significant international collaboration against cybercrime. Previous efforts in late 2024 also targeted DDoS-for-hire services, resulting in additional arrests and domain takedowns. Key Points: • Operation PowerOFF involved 21 countries and resulted in 53 domain seizures. • Over 75,000 warning emails were sent to suspected users of DDoS-for-hire services. • Four arrests were made, and the operation aims to disrupt the infrastructure of DDoS attacks.
Key Entities
- DDoS (attack_type)
- Operation PowerOFF (campaign)
- PowerOFF (campaign)
- Airbnb (company)
- Amazon (company)
- CNN (company)
- Dell (company)
- Dyn (company)
- EBay (platform)
- GitHub (platform)
- Visa (platform)
- HTTP/2 (platform)
- Memcached (platform)
- Australia (country)
- Austria (country)
- Belgium (country)
- Brazil (country)
- Britain (country)
- Telecommunications (industry)
- Mirai (malware)
- Google Cloud (tool)
- HTTP/2 Rapid Reset (vulnerability)