British cyber investigators set up several sites where criminals could allegedly order DDoS attacks. Thousands of digital vandals fell into the trap and created accounts, leaving their data in the hands of the police.
They can therefore expect a visit soon, the British criminal investigation department announced on Friday. It is not known whether the users include Dutch people.
In a DDoS attack, a computer system is flooded with visitors, all of whom are sent to the target at the same time. This often happens with hijacked devices. The attack renders the site or server unreachable. Such attacks are easy to order online.
The National Crime Agency does not report how many decoy sites were created and how long they were active. “People who want to use such services cannot be sure who is behind them. Why would you take the risk?”, the detective explains the purpose of the action.
At the end of last year, the American FBI, with the help of the Netherlands, took down about fifty sites where DDoS attacks could be ordered. One of the decommissioned platforms is said to have been used for 30 million attacks.
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