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The National Crime Agency (NCA) from the U.K. launched several fake DDoS-as-a-service sites. The aim is to gather the details of people who try to utilize such services.
The deceiving sites infiltrate the cybercrime market, and several thousand individuals accessed them already. The NCA is now in the possession of all these people’s user data.
The DDoS-as-a-service Fake Sites Operation
DDoS-as-a-service is an illegal activity, part of the cybercrime-as-a-service model. Hackers sell DDoS attacks for a small fee and the client chooses the target, the duration of the attack, etc. This activity is especially dangerous as opens up the cybercrime field to any individual ready to pay for it, and does not require any technical knowledge.
But those who accessed the fake sited did not receive the services they were looking for. Instead, authorities now have their contacts and are going to pursue them.
One of the fake DDoS-as-a-service sites now displays a warning about the true purpose of the page. But NBC stays silent about the total number of fake sites and the extent of the operation.
The NCA replaced the site’s domain with a splash page warning users that their data has been collected and they will be contacted by law enforcement.
The NCA will contact U.K. citizens from the data base gathered in this operation and forward the foreign citizens’ contacts to international law enforcement.
The perceived anonymity and ease of use afforded by these services mean that DDoS has become an attractive entry-level crime, allowing individuals with little technical ability to commit cyber offenses with ease.
Alan Merrett from the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit
The fake DDoS-as-a-service pages are part of a wider international operation called Power Off. This effort involves the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Dutch National Police Corps, the NCA, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, and Poland’s National Police Cybercrime Bureau.
Europol declared in December 2022 that the Power Off operation stopped 50 of the biggest DDoS-as-a-service sites worldwide. One of these sites carried out over 30 million DDoS attacks.
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