Law enforcement agencies across Europe and North America have intensified their coordinated efforts to dismantle DDoS-for-hire (also known as “booter” or “stresser”) services, with Europol announcing another round of website takedowns and arrests.
On May 8, 2025, Europol revealed the shutdown of six additional platforms—Cfxapi, Cfxsecurity, Neostress, Jetstress, Quickdown, and Zapcut—that facilitated thousands of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. These services allowed users to pay a small fee to flood targets with traffic, overwhelming and disabling their online operations. Victims have included government entities, educational institutions, gaming platforms, and private businesses.
The latest action is part of Operation PowerOFF, an ongoing international initiative aimed at disrupting the commercial ecosystem enabling cyberattacks. Four suspects were arrested in Poland, allegedly for operating a network of these illegal services.
Authorities in the United States, Netherlands, and Germany also took part in the operation. The U.S. Department of Justice reportedly seized nine domains connected to DDoS-for-hire activities, while Dutch officials deployed deceptive websites posing as booter services—designed to deter would-be users by warning them of legal consequences.
This is not the first wave of enforcement: over the past few years, dozens of similar sites have been taken down, with increasing collaboration between cybersecurity authorities worldwide. Europol emphasized that these services, though often marketed as legitimate testing tools, are in most cases used unlawfully to disrupt services and infrastructure.
“Many users mistakenly believe that using booter services is legal or risk-free,” noted Europol in its official statement. “These takedowns serve as a reminder that launching or facilitating DDoS attacks is a criminal offense in many jurisdictions.”
The crackdown follows a broader trend of international efforts to curb cybercrime by targeting its commercial enablers—highlighting a shift toward preventive and deterrent strategies in digital law enforcement.
Sources:
- Europol official press release: europol.europa.eu
- Eduard Kovacs, SecurityWeek, “Europol Announces More DDoS Service Takedowns, Arrests”, May 2025
Europol-building-The-Hague-the-Netherlands Picture-by-O Seveno-on-Wikimedia-Creative-Commons-Attribution-Share-Alike-3.0
