German Police Disrupt DDoS-for-Hire Platform dstat[.]cc; Suspects Arrested

German law enforcement authorities have announced the disruption of a criminal service called dstat[.]cc that made it possible for other threat actors to easily mount distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

"The platform made such DDoS attacks accessible to a wide range of users, even those without any in-depth technical skills of their own," the Federal Criminal Police Office (aka Bundeskriminalamt or BKA) said.

"The use of stresser services to carry out DDoS attacks has recently become increasingly known in the context of police investigations."

The BKA described dstat[.]cc as a platform that offered recommendations and evaluations of stresser services in order to conduct DDoS attacks against websites of interest and render them unresponsive.

According to an alert published by Radware, dstat[.]cc offered botnet owners the ability to assess the capacity and capabilities of their DDoS attack services.

"Bot herders use DStat sites to gauge and demonstrate the strength of their botnet, booter, or script against various unprotected and protected targets," the company said.

Dstat[.]cc, based on the collected information from demonstration attacks, provides reviews and contact information for the booter services, allowing potential subscribers to compare and find the best service for their malicious intents."

In tandem, two suspects aged 19 and 28 have been arrested from Darmstadt and the Rhein-Lahn districts. They are also accused of providing criminal infrastructure for the trafficking of narcotics in considerable quantities.

Specifically, they are alleged to have advertised and sold designer drugs and liquids made of synthetic cannabinoids on an online platform named "Flight RCS" that was accessible on the clearnet.

The takedown of dstat[.]cc is part of an ongoing concerted law enforcement operation dubbed PowerOFF, which has led to the closure of several DDoS-for-hire sites such as digitalstress[.]su and Anonymous Sudan in recent months.