The Agency chose to identify one of the sites currently being run by officers as part of a sustained programme of activity to disrupt and undermine DDoS as a criminal service, according to today’s announcement. The NCA replaced the site’s domain with a splash page informing users that their data had been collected and that law enforcement would contact them.
DDoS attacks, which are designed to overwhelm websites and force them offline, are illegal in the United Kingdom under the Computer Misuse Act of 1990.
DDoS-for-hire or ‘booter’ services enable users to create accounts and order DDoS attacks in minutes. Such attacks have the potential to cause significant damage to businesses and critical national infrastructure, as well as to prevent people from gaining access to essential public services. All of the NCA-run sites, which have been visited by thousands of people, have been designed to appear to provide the tools and services required by cyber criminals to carry out these attacks. However, rather than being given access to cybercrime tools, users’ data is collected by investigators after they register. Users in the United Kingdom will be contacted by the National Crime Agency or the police and warned against engaging in cybercrime. International law enforcement is receiving information about those based abroad. Booter services are a key enabler of cyber crime,” said Alan Merrett of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit. DDoS has become an appealing entry-level crime due to the perceived anonymity and ease of use provided by these services, allowing individuals with little technical ability to commit cyber offences with ease. Traditional site takedowns and arrests are key components of law enforcement’s response to this threat.” However, by engaging in this activity, we have expanded our operational capability while undermining trust in the criminal market. “We will not say how many sites we have or how long they have been operational.” People who want to use these services in the future won’t know who is behind them, so why take the risk?” This activity is part of Operation Power Off, a global coordinated international response aimed at criminal DDoS infrastructures. Following close collaboration with the National Crime Agency, Netherlands Police, and Europol, the FBI took down 48 of the world’s most popular booter sites in December of last year. The NCA also arrested an 18-year-old man in Devon who was suspected of being a site administrator. The sites seized were the most powerful DDoS-for-hire services on the market, with one having carried out over 30 million attacks.