British police seized over 50 devices probably used to perform cyberattacks during several raids
British authorities have carried out multiple
raids against hundreds of cybercriminals throughout the United Kingdom.
According to network security and ethical hacking experts from the
International Institute of Cyber Security, these operations are part of an
international campaign to trap users of Webstresser,
considered by Europol as the world’s
largest for-hire cyberattack platform.
The site was shut down in April 2018, although
the authorities still continue to search for suspects. UK National Crime Agency (NCA) mentions that it is planning additional
actions against nearly 400 suspected Webstresser customers in British territory.
Network
security
experts in Europol say that Webstresser has collaborated to launch more than 4
million of denial of service (DDoS)
attacks and, at the time of its closure, had more than 150k registered clients.
Rates for its users ranged from $15 to $20 per month.
NCA said it had already issued legal warnings
(known as ‘cease and desist notices’) to many of the users whose devices were
seized during these raids. These notices announce to those involved future
legal actions if they continue their outside the law activities.
“This is a sign that although users of these
services believe they can remain hidden, a fake user name and the use of
cryptocurrency transactions will not provide them with the desired anonymity,”
said Jim Stokley, network security specialist and director of the NCA Cyber
Crime Unit. “We have already identified multiple suspects linked to
Webstresser, and they will be brought before the courts,” reaffirms Stokley.
These actions in search of Webstresser clients
are part of an international initiative against the use of the sites to hire
services of DDoS attacks. During this operation, 15 other websites offering
similar services to Webstresser were shut down. Romanian authorities also
seized two suspicious sites and expected to share the information collected in
these operations with Europol.
Cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs said that some
firms of information security professionals have criticized this joint effort
against customers of services such as those offered by Webstresser: “Most of
them are young people under the age of 21 who use these services in disputes related
to online video games,” the expert mentioned.
Security firms who are dissatisfied with this
measure are asking the authorities to focus on the most serious cyber-offender
groups and with real ability to compromise an organization’s information
infrastructure.
