Operation PowerOFF: 75K Users of DDoS-for-Hire Services Identified and Warned

Operation PowerOFF identifies and warns 75K users of DDoS-for-hire services, nets 4 arrests, and seizes 53 domains in a Europol-led crackdown.

Law enforcement teams have completed an intense week of action against illegal DDoS-for-hire services as part of the long-running Operation PowerOFF. This joint operation comprises teams from 21 countries and targets services that facilitate Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.

According to Europol, the latest crackdown happened on 13 April 2026, in which officials tracked down the people actually paying for these attacks.

The sites offering DDoS-for-hire services are also called “booters” or “stressers” because they allow anyone, even people who know almost nothing about computers, to launch a DDoS for a tiny fee. This recent operation led to four arrests and the seizure of 53 web domains used by hackers.

“DDoS-for-hire is one of the most prolific and easily accessible trends in cybercrime, enabling individuals with little technical knowledge to ...