Dutch law enforcement shut down several DDoS-for-hire service providers recently. DDoS-for-hire is a destructive service offered by cybercriminals that allows anyone with enough money to hire a botnet to perform a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against a chosen victim’s website. This attack typically renders the victim’s website unusable until the attack ends. Some DDoS-for-hire services will refuse to let up an attack until the victim pays a ransom, similar to ransomware schemes. While Dutch police did not release the names of cybercriminals arrested, they revealed that they arrested a 19-year-old from the Netherlands who is suspected of carrying out several attacks targeting sites that provided information about the coronavirus.
Analyst Notes
Unfortunately, defending against very strong DDoS attacks is very difficult. Even weak DDoS attacks can still bring down system critical services. Binary Defense recommends using DDoS mitigation services. If a cybercriminal reaches out asking for money to stop the attack, Dutch police recommend not paying the ransom and instead to contact the police. When DDoS service operators are arrested, it can act as a deterrent to other criminals selling similar services. The best way to reduce the number of DDoS attacks, however, is to reduce the demand by refusing to pay ransoms and making these attacks unprofitable for criminals.
For more information, please see: https://www.cyberscoop.com/dutch-police-ddos-shutdown/
