What was taken down?
Service infrastructure seized in the Netherlands, the United States, and Germany; domain taken offline and replaced with a seizure notice.[1][2]
See what happenedWhat happened to the people?
Officials reported 6 apprehended.
Group accounted for: Likely complete
Did it stay down?
After this action a successor service took over the same demand, first seen May 2018. The replacement was itself seized in a later action. High confidence in the link between the two.
See what happened afterwardDutch and UK-led international action seizing the infrastructure of Webstresser.org, then the world's largest DDoS-for-hire service, with administrator arrests in four countries.[1][2]
Announced April 25, 2018.
- Date
- April 24 to April 25, 2018
- Target
- Webstresser.org, booter stresser service
- Activity
- DDoS for hire
- Operational lead
- Dutch National Police and NCA
- Partners
- Europol[1]
- European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation , coordinator
- Jurisdiction
- Netherlands, United Kingdom, Croatia, Canada, Serbia, Germany, United States, and European Union
- Outcome
- Service infrastructure seized in the Netherlands, the United States, and Germany; domain taken offline and replaced with a seizure notice.
- Status
- Completed
- Legal mechanism
- Dutch and UK judicial process; international arrest warrants; Europol coordination
- Group accounted for
- Likely complete
Infrastructure
1 domain seized. Servers seized, with no count in the record.
- 1
- domain seized
| Identifier | Recorded as | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| webstresser[.]org | 1 domain | Seized | Domain taken offline and replaced with a seizure notice.[1] |
| Not published | Server | Seized | Infrastructure seized in the Netherlands, the United States, and Germany.[1] |
Domains and onion addresses are shown defanged. Where the record gives a count but no identifier, the count is shown in place of one. This list carries only what appears in the cited sources.
No individual is named against this entry in the cited record. That is a gap in what has been published rather than a finding that nobody was involved.
Group accounted for: Likely complete
The administrative team was reported arrested and the infrastructure seized, though the full roster was not officially confirmed as closed and administrators were not comprehensively named.
Six administrators reported arrested across the United Kingdom, Croatia, Canada, and Serbia.
Follow-on measures taken against users of the service in multiple countries.[1][2]
-
May 2018
Replacement booter and stresser services. Ecosystem successor. Confidence: High. Seized in a later action.[3]
The DDoS-for-hire market was repopulated by unrelated operators, prompting the recurring PowerOFF wave structure.
May 2018
Replacement booter and stresser services. Ecosystem successor. Confidence: High. Seized in a later action.[3]
The DDoS-for-hire market was repopulated by unrelated operators, prompting the recurring PowerOFF wave structure.
Return class E. The class is a research grading carried in the source dataset and its scale is not published, so this page relies on the relationship and confidence values instead. How this index handles it.
Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.
Official sources
-
[1]
World's biggest marketplace selling internet paralysing DDoS attacks taken down
Infrastructure seizure locations, administrator arrests, service scale
-
[2]
NCA statement on the Webstresser takedown
UK role and follow-on action against users
-
[3]
Federal Prosecutors in Los Angeles and Alaska Charge 6 Defendants with Operating Websites that Offer Computer Attack Services
48 domain seizures and six defendants charged