The
United
States
(US)
federal
government
has
seized
13
domains
linked
to
‘booter’
websites
that
offered
distributed
denial
of
service
(DDoS)-attacks-for-hire
services.
So-called
‘booter’
sites
allow
people
to
pay
malicious
actors
to
launch
DDoS
attacks
against
people
or
organizations
of
their
choice.
DDoS
attacks
disrupt
sites
by
overwhelming
their
infrastructure
with
a
large
amount
of
internet
traffic,
which
overwhelms
the
site’s
bandwidth
and
prevents
users
from
accessing
it.
The
Federal
Bureau
of
Investigation
(FBI)
seized
the
domains
on
May
8.
The
seizure
revealed
that
“hundreds
of
thousands
of
registered
users
have
used
these
services
to
launch
millions
of
attacks
against
millions
of
victims”,
including
financial
institutions,
school
districts,
government
websites
and
universities.
Additionally,
10
of
the
13
domains
were
reincarnated
versions
of
domains
previously
seized
in
a
similar
sweep
in
December
2022.
The
Los
Angeles
Justice
Department
announced
in
relation
to
the
sites
seized
that
four
men
who
pleaded
guilty
in
late
2022
and
were
charged
with
federal
charges
earlier
this
year,
admitted
that
they
operated
or
participated
in
the
operation
of
booter
services.
All
four
defendants
are
due
to
be
sentenced
later
in
2023.
The
FBI
and
Los
Angeles
Justice
Department
have
said
that
the
investigation
into
booter
sites
remains
ongoing.
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