Stresser
Stresser (or booter) services provide denial-of-service attack as a service, usually as a criminal enterprise.[1]
They typically have simple web-based front ends, and accept payment over the web. Marketed and promoted as stress-testing tools, they can be used to perform unauthorized denial-of-service attacks, and allow technically unsophisticated attackers access to sophisticated attack tools.[2] Usually powered by a botnet, the traffic produced by a consumer stresser can range anywhere from 5-50 Gbit/s, which can, in most cases, deny the average home user internet access.[3]
Targets of booter/stresser services include network gaming services.[2][4] Motivations for the use of stresser services include revenge, extortion, and simple mischief.
Law enforcement activity
The use or provision of booter/stresser services for unauthorized DDoS attacks is illegal in both the United States and the United Kingdom under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Computer Misuse Act 1990 respectively.[1][5]
In 2023 it was revealed that a cross-industry organization called "Big Pipes" with representatives from major Internet companies had been working with law enforcement to find and shut down illegal booter/stresser services for the previous five years.[4]
The UK National Crime Agency has set up numerous "honeypot" websites purporting to be booter/stresser services. The details of people registering with these fake services are logged.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The FBI and International Law Enforcement Partners Intensify Efforts to Combat Illegal DDoS Attacks" (in en-us). https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/anchorage/fbi-intensify-efforts-to-combat-illegal-ddos-attacks.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Krebs, Brian (August 15, 2015). "Stress-Testing the Booter Services, Financially". http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/08/stress-testing-the-booter-services-financially/.
- ↑ Mubarakali, Azath; Srinivasan, Karthik; Mukhalid, Reham; Jaganathan, Subash C. B.; Marina, Ninoslav (2020-01-26). "Security challenges in internet of things: Distributed denial of service attack detection using support vector machine-based expert systems" (in en). Computational Intelligence 36 (4): 1580–1592. doi:10.1111/coin.12293. ISSN 0824-7935. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/coin.12293.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Greenberg, Andy. "The Team of Sleuths Quietly Hunting Cyberattack-for-Hire Services" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/story/big-pipes-ddos-for-hire-fbi/. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
- ↑ "DDoS attacks are illegal" (in en-GB). https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/cyber-crime?catid=2&id=243&view=article.
- ↑ "UK Sets Up Fake Booter Sites To Muddy DDoS Market" (in en-US). https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/03/uk-sets-up-fake-booter-sites-to-muddy-ddos-market/.
See also
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