209/69 Friday, April 17, 2026
Europol has provided an update on the international operation Operation PowerOFF, aimed at disrupting the use of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack platforms. Authorities have identified more than 75,000 individuals involved and have issued warnings via email and formal letters. The coordinated effort, involving agencies from 21 countries, has also led to the arrest of four suspects, the shutdown of 53 related domains, and the execution of 25 search warrants.
The operation spans multiple regions worldwide, including the European Union, as well as Australia, Thailand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Brazil. It specifically targets so-called “booter services”-platforms that allow users to rent DDoS attack infrastructure, such as compromised IoT devices or hijacked routers, to launch attacks against targets. Although some operators claim these services are for legitimate stress testing, the lack of proper authorization verification makes their use illegal.
Operation PowerOFF builds on previous efforts that resulted in the seizure of over 3 million user accounts linked to cybercriminal activity. Moving forward, authorities plan to focus on preventive measures, including awareness campaigns-especially targeting youth-displaying warning ads in search engines, removing over 100 illegal website links from search results, and inserting warning messages into financial transactions associated with illicit services. These efforts aim to reduce the risk of cybercrime in the future.