FBI Shuts Down 15 DDoS-For-Hire Sites

The FBI has shut down the domains of 15 high-profile distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) websites. "Several seizure warrants granted by a California federal judge went into effect Thursday, removing several of these 'border' or 'stresser' sites off the internet 'as part of coordinated law enforcement action taken against illegal DDoS-for-hire services,'" reports TechCrunch. "The orders were granted under federal seizure laws, and the domains were replaced with a federal notice." From the report: Prosecutors have charged three men, Matthew Gatrel and Juan Martinez in California and David Bukoski in Alaska, with operating the sites, according to affidavits filed in three U.S. federal courts, which were unsealed Thursday. The FBI had assistance from the U.K.'s National Crime Agency and the Dutch national police, and the Justice Department named several companies, including Cloudflare, Flashpoint and Google, for providing authorities with additional assistance. In all, several sites were knocked offline -- including downthem.org, netstress.org, quantumstress.net, vbooter.org and defcon.pro and more -- which allowed would-be attackers to sign up to rent time and servers to launch large-scale bandwidth attacks against systems and servers.

Cool something besides politics

[Seven Spirals]

Jesus thank you FBI for giving us ONE FUCKING STORY that didn't bring in some more dipshit partisans.

Re:

[Seven Spirals]

I'd like to thank the ACs for a perfect illustration of "dipshit partisans".

Re:

[Antique Geekmeister]

From personal experience with the FBI's Computer Crime Lab, I'd not give them credit for this action without compelling proof. They've not yet shown they're capable of doing the actual work to block, capture, or prosecute any computer criminals in any of the cases I know of personally. The few crimes listed on their website show no sign that they've done nothing successful except to claim credit for others', and they've passively interfered in every investigation I do know of personally. They accept reports

Re:Cool something besides politics

[ShanghaiBill]

I have also had direct dealings with the FBI's Computer Crime Lab. The team leader had a degree in history, and his subordinates were even more clueless than he was. The only way they could have done this is if the three named companies that provided them "addition assistance", handed them all the evidence on a silver platter. Even then, it is a miracle that they didn't screw it up.

The FBI prides themselves on their "special agents" being able to "do it all" without any actually being "special". But, at least with tech crimes, that clearly isn't working.

Re:

[Antique Geekmeister]

I hesitate to name the labs I've dealt with to preserve my pseudonymous status. I'm willing to say that I've dealt with them on 4 distinct occasions in the last 10 years, simply to report criminal activity I or my colleagues had tracked back to its source, and they did nothing with the information. Their position as the agency to report criminal computer activity actively and refusing to release the evidence to others interferes with other agencies.

Re:

[Seven Spirals]

Well, I my original post was a bit tongue and cheek. However, I had one experience that validates your main assertion. I did a contract job about 15 years ago for a company that had a severe internal IT vandalism incident (a "hack" as journalist would say). This guy was really, really, wanting prison. He used the corporate VPN and didn't make tremendous efforts to hide his tracks (they made him really made, I heard). The company apparently used an Excel spreadsheet to keep their passwords in. They were like

Re:

[Seven Spirals]

I didn't really come down one way or another on if the case was a good use of FBI resources. Despite your anger and insults you have some valid points. What I'm saying is more that just because something is a federal crime, doesn't mean that the FBI will automatically get involved. I did find the manner of the FBI investigator to be a bit lofty and he treated the locals pretty badly, too. It was clear they didn't like him. Of course, all that was just one incident and as we both say with more or less vitrio

Re:

[Antique Geekmeister]

I'm afraid I've seen no sign that they "have anything better to do" but accept reports and evidence gathered by others, reports on which they refuse to act, and on occasion take credit for other people's work in which they've interfered until the moment of prosecution.. That they accept reports and evidence but then ignore it actually deters other criminal or civil prosecution,

Re: Cool something besides politics

[Zero__Kelvin]

So your claim is that you never posted?

Re:

[Seven Spirals]

Well, I wouldn't consider myself any type of partisan since I don't hold views that are compatible with any party. I have right, left, and centrist political opinions. However, those that want to label me as such are free to do so. I do believe in freedom.

Now if they could just take down "Lisa"

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Now if they could just take down "Lisa from Credit Card Services" the phone scammer that called me on my cellphone just before I got to this.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Don't answer calls from people you don't know.

Many of us rely on our phones for business. I get calls almost every day from clients and prospective clients. If I don't take the call, I starve.

I have an iPhone. Almost all spam calls say "Scam Likely" in the name field. If Apple can identify scammers, why can't the phone company, or the FBI?

Slashdot Is Safe

[Anonymous Coward]

Luckily slashdotting is a thing of the past with this piddely audience.

Re:

[fredrated]

No shit, I think the ship has just about sunk, is it time to jump?

How will 4chan ruin Christmas now?

[cfalcon]

Maybe we can get through Christmas without some online game going down because something they did offended a 4chan anon.

Maybe?

Domain Seizure

[XArtur0]

Domain Seizure means we can still reach the actual site by its translated IP Address, right?

Not that I support their Business Model, just to know how much power the US Guv-a-mint actually does have.

Thanks.

Depends

[Solandri]

If the site has a dedicated web server, then yeah the IP address will work even if the domain name gets taken down and DNS redirected.

But most small websites are hosted on shared servers [bluehost.com]. Dozens or hundreds of websites are hosted on a single server and all have the same IP address. The site that gets loaded in your browser depends on the domain name you used to get to that IP address.

its about time

[Revek]

I turned in several sites about four years ago and never heard anything back.

Slashdot is safe!

[easyTree]

No one RTFAs these days...