Law enforcement shut down DDoS booters ahead of annual Christmas DDoS attacks
Law enforcement from the US, the UK, and the Netherlands, have seized the domains of 15 DDoS-for-hire services, ZDNet has learned. The domain seizures come days before the Christmas holiday, a period of the year when hacker groups have historically targeted gaming providers with DDoS attacks.
The tradition started in 2013, with DerpTrolling's attacks, and then continued the following years. Lizard Squad launched DDoS attacks on Christmas in 2014, a group called Phantom Squad did the same in 2015, R.I.U. Star Patrol in 2016, and several lone hackers last year, in 2017, but with less success than the previous years.
These attacks usually targeted services like the PlayStation Network, Xbox, Steam, Blizzard, or EA Online. The purpose of these attacks, as expressed by the hacker groups, was to ruin people's Christmas or make gamers spend time with their families.
