The Judicial Police said that, through the National Unit for Combating Cybercrime and Technological Crime, they joined a global operation led by Europol. This operation focused on stopping and preventing over 75,000 people involved in ‘DDoS-for-hire’ attacks, according to a statement about Operation ‘PowerOFF’.

‘DDoS-for-hire’ attacks

‘DDoS-for-hire’ attacks (distributed denial-of-service) are a form of cybercrime that operates as a marketplace for contracting services, where it is possible to acquire cyberattacks, templates targeting servers, websites, or online services, such as sales platforms.

In these attacks, pages or services are flooded with fraudulent connection requests. These requests are produced by botnets: networks of robots or computers infected with malicious software (malware). The goal is to make the service unavailable to legitimate users. Fraudulent requests overwhelm the service, preventing it from responding to the high volume of incoming connections.

“Booter services allow users to launch DDoS attacks against specific websites, servers, or networks. Their infrastructure comprises servers, databases, and other technical components that enable DDoS-for-hire activity. By seizing these infrastructures, the authorities were able to stop these criminal operations and prevent further damage to victims,” reads the statement from the PJ.

“The police also got databases that helped Europol experts support their partners by giving information on over three million user accounts,” the PJ said.

Portuguese police contribution

Regarding Portugal's participation in the Europol operation, the PJ submitted 62 requests to Google to remove websites that provided this cybercrime service, resulting in the removal of 59 of the requested pages, "representing the highest number of removals among the countries participating in this joint operation."

Globally, the operation led to the arrest of 23 people, the closure of 53 domains, and the issuance of 25 search warrants.

International operation

Two dozen countries participated in the operation: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

“The attacks are frequently focused regionally, with users targeting servers and websites within their continent, and they target diverse targets, including online marketplaces, telecommunications operators, and other web-based services. Motivations vary from curiosity and ideological objectives to financial gain through extortion or the disruption of competing services,” the PJ further explained.