In an international operation, several sites that have been used for denial-of-service attacks have been removed from the network.
For consumers, denial-of-service attacks can appear, for example, as daily services not working. Anu Kivistö
- In the international operation, dozens of pages used for denial-of-service attacks have been closed.
- Hundreds of Finns were found among the users of the services.
- KRP sends Finnish users an email informing them of the illegality of the service.
An international operation led by the US Federal Police FBI has revealed hundreds of Finns who have used websites offering illegal services intended for denial-of-service attacks.
In the Poweroff operation, which started in 2018, the authorities have seized and closed sites offering booter and stresser services. Among them are 63 of the world’s largest booter services.
Seizures abroad have led to criminal investigations and prosecutions of site operators.
This is what it’s all about
Booters are load testing services used to perform denial of service attacks. Among the decommissioned services were Ipstresser, Stresserapp and Bootyou.
The sites in question may claim to sell products suitable for data security testing. In reality, they provide illegal tools to carry out denial-of-service attacks from anywhere in the world.
The attacks use illegally taken over network devices that have been hijacked for criminal use by hacking.
KRP sent emails
From Finland, KRP has been involved in the operation, and has approached Finnish users who have registered for the services by e-mail.
In their message, the police have said that the recipient of the email has registered on a website offering illegal services, which has been seized. The user has been warned about the illegality of the site, urged to stop using it and to delete data and software related to the service from their devices.
The police do not currently suspect the Finns who received the e-mail contact of a crime, and the e-mail does not require action from the recipients. Those who have received the message can contact the central criminal police by e-mail at poweroff.krp@poliisi.
Considered harmless
Committing a denial of service attack is punishable under the Criminal Code. For example, interference with an information system or telecommunications can be considered as a crime.
Criminal inspector of the Central Criminal Police Mikko Rauhamaan denial of service attacks are often considered to be somewhat harmless, so-called digital traffic congestion. At their worst, however, they can cause serious damage to people, companies and even critical functions of society as a whole, such as the emergency center.
For consumers, denial-of-service attacks can appear, for example, as the non-functioning of daily services, such as online banking or shop payment terminals.
Countering attacks often requires extensive and expensive security measures. Getting a crashed online service back to normal can take a lot of time and money.
The first step to cybercrime
According to Rauhamaa, the use of booter services is unfortunately common, especially among young people, and dossing on game platforms, for example, is often a young person’s first contact with cybercrime.
The police remind us that an attack made with the help of an automated tool is also a crime.