Website
linked to cyber-attacks against UK banks is shut down
Webstresser.org, which had 136,000 users,
could be rented for £10 to launch DDoS attacks
Jamie Grierson
A screengrab of Webstresser.org
after it was taken down
A
website linked to more than 4m cyber-attacks worldwide, including against some
of Britain’s biggest banks, has been shut down following a UK- and
Netherlands-led operation.
Webstresser.org
had 136,000 registered users and could be rented for about £10 to launch
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, in which high volumes of internet
traffic are launched at target computers to disable them.
Following
an investigation led by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Dutch
national police, servers were seized at 11.30am on Wednesday in the Netherlands,
the US and Germany, effecting a takedown of the website.
Suspected
members of the group were arrested on Tuesday in Scotland, Canada and Serbia,
the NCA said. Croatian police said they had arrested a 19-year old man who
faces charges of criminal acts against computer systems. The operation was
supported by Europol and Police Scotland, as well as law enforcement in 11
countries.
NCA
officers also raided a property in Bradford, where the agency believed a
suspect linked to the address used the Webstresser service to target seven of
the UK’s biggest banks in attacks in November last year. The banks, which have
not been named by investigators, were forced to reduce their operations or shut
down entire systems, incurring costs in the hundreds of thousands.
Jo
Goodall, senior investigating officer at the NCA, said: “A significant criminal
website has been shut down and the sophisticated crime group behind it stopped
as a result of an international investigation involving law enforcement
agencies from 11 countries.
“The
arrests made over the past two days show that the internet does not provide
bulletproof anonymity to offenders and we expect to identify further suspects
linked to the site in the coming weeks and months as we examine the evidence we
have gathered.”
Individuals
with little or no technical knowledge could use the Webstresser service to
launch crippling cyber-attacks across the world.
Other
targets have included government institutions and police forces, as well as
victims in the gaming industry.
Gert
Ras, the head of the national hi-tech crime unit at the Dutch police, said: “By
taking down the world’s largest illegal DDoS seller in a worldwide joint
law-enforcement operation based on NCA intelligence, we have made an
unprecedented impact on DDoS cybercrime. Not only were the administrators of
this illegal service arrested, but also users will now face prosecution and
civil liability for caused damage.
“This
is a warning to all wannabe DDoS-ers: do not DDoS because, through close
law-enforcement collaboration, we will identify you, bring you to court and
facilitate that you will be held liable by the victims for the huge damage you
cause.”
Europol’s
European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and the Joint CybercrimeAction Taskforce (J-Cat) supported
the investigation by assisting the exchange of information between all
partners. A command-and-coordination post was set up at Europol’s headquarters
in The Hague, in the Netherlands, on the action day.
Sources : https://www.theguardian.com/international
Tags:
Informasi