Police are now on the lookout for WebStresser users

• Customers of former DDoS-for-hire site WebStresser are now chased by police and law enforcement agencies.
• WebStresser was seized by authorities from the US, UK, and the Netherlands in April 2018.

Users registered on WebStresser are in for a bad ride as police authorities plan to track those who conducted small-scale DDoS attacks. The popular DDoS-for-hire site was shut down in April 2018 after authorities found that the site was responsible for over four million attacks in a span of three years.

Once WebStresser was seized up, police uncovered information of its more than 150,000 registered users. Currently, UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is leading the way to track down all the users, followed by police authorities from 19 countries around the world.

“In the United Kingdom, a number of webstresser.org users have recently been visited by the police, who have seized over 60 personal electronic devices from them for analysis as part of Operation Power OFF. UK police are also conducting a number of live operations against other DDoS criminals; over 250 users of webstresser.org and other DDoS services will soon face action for the damage they have caused.” said a press release by Europol.

Cease and desist letters are also being issued. Around 400 registered users are currently being investigated by NCA.

Banishing DDoS-For-Hire websites

Law enforcement agencies are aggressively pursuing other DDoS offering sites. In December 2018, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took down sites such as Downthem and Quantum Stresser, which surfaced in the previous year. Romanian police also cracked down on a few small DDoS platforms and have uncovered information about their user base.