Find notable cyber news and cases, enriched with sources, timelines, and signals.
Home Watchlists Beta Browse News Feed Stats About Contact

Operation PowerOFF DDoS-for-hire arrests and takedowns

Law Enforcement
First reported
Last updated
Happening score
H score 57
2 unique sources, 2 articles

Summary

Hide ▲

Authorities participating in Operation PowerOFF disrupted DDoS-for-hire and booter infrastructure across 21 countries, arresting four suspects and taking 53 domains offline. The action targeted services used to rent attack capacity for disruptive cyberattacks. Reporting on the same enforcement phase also described follow-on disruption measures, including the seizure of databases tied to criminal user accounts, removal of advertising URLs, and warnings to platform users. The broader effort aimed to dismantle the illegal DDoS-for-hire ecosystem and discourage further use of the services.

Related Happenings

StealC and Amadey infostealer infrastructure disruption

Malware Activity
H score69 First: 24.06.2026 18:25 Last: 24.06.2026 18:25 Sources 1

About this happening: StealC and Amadey malware infrastructure was disrupted in Operation Endgame, cutting off the command-and-control services used to manage infected systems. Europol said...

Open Happening

Operation Endgame takedown of Amadey and StealC infrastructure

Law Enforcement
H score66 First: 24.06.2026 18:02 Last: 24.06.2026 18:02 Sources 1

About this happening: An international law-enforcement takedown under Operation Endgame disrupted shared infrastructure used by Amadey and StealC, with Microsoft, Europol, and i...

Open Happening

Operation Endgame takedown of SocGholish and Evil Corp infrastructure

Law Enforcement
H score58 First: 18.06.2026 16:25 Last: 18.06.2026 16:25 Sources 1

About this happening: International law enforcement disrupted SocGholish/FakeUpdates infrastructure in Operation Endgame on June 18, cleaning 14,971 compromised WordPress websites a...

Open Happening

Operation KRATOS 2 streaming piracy crackdown

Law Enforcement
H score55 First: 03.06.2026 13:12 Last: 03.06.2026 13:12 Sources 1

About this happening: European and international law enforcement dismantled nine organized crime groups and arrested 29 suspects in Operation KRATOS 2, a cross-border crackdown on ill...

Open Happening

First VPN takedown by Europol and French-Dutch authorities

Law Enforcement
H score17 First: 21.05.2026 16:09 Last: 21.05.2026 16:09 Sources 1

About this happening: Europol and French and Dutch authorities took First VPN offline in a cross-border operation that also seized servers and arrested the administrator. The case m...

Open Happening

Timeline

  1. 17.04.2026 14:30 2 articles · 2mo ago

    Operation PowerOff disrupts DDoS-for-hire infrastructure

    Legal Policy Action Update

    Europol-led Operation PowerOff involved police and cybersecurity agencies from 21 countries and disrupted DDoS-for-hire infrastructure by taking down 53 domains, seizing databases linked to over three million criminal user accounts, removing over 100 advertising URLs, and arresting four people suspected of providing DDoS-for-hire services.

    Show sources
    Open in new tab
  2. 17.04.2026 01:26 2 articles · 3mo ago

    Operation PowerOFF latest enforcement phase

    Legal Policy Action Update

    Europol-supported authorities in 21 countries warned more than 75,000 DDoS platform users, arrested four people, took 53 domains offline, and issued 25 search warrants during the latest Operation PowerOFF action against DDoS-for-hire/booter services. The operation also entered a prevention phase that adds awareness campaigns, search engine ads aimed at young people seeking DDoS tools, removal of more than 100 promotional URLs, and on-chain warning messages tied to illicit payments.

    Show sources
    Open in new tab