NightmareStresser group responsible for thousands of DDOS attacks has domains seized in major operation

(Image credit: Getty Images) US law enforcement seized Nightmare Stresser domains, a long‑running DDoS‑for‑hire platformService enabled hundreds of thousands of attacks since 2022; FBI banner now replaces sitesPart of Operation PowerOFF, which has seized 100+ domains and charged 12 people so farUS law enforcement agencies disrupted yet another Distributed Denial of Service for hire (DDoS-for-hire) platform. In a press release published earlier this week on the District of Alaska’s Attorney General’s Office website, it was said that two internet domains associated with the Nightmare Stresser service were seized.Describing it as “one of the world’s longest running Distributed Denial of Service for hire services,” the DoJ says Nightmare Stresser was used in “hundreds of thousands of actual or attempted DDoS attacks targeting victims worldwide since 2022”.Services such as this one are called “booters” or “stressers”, and are often advertised as legitimate, allowing users to stress-test their websites against possible DDoS attacks.No arrestsHowever, researchers have warned on multiple occasions that this is merely a cover for what’s essentially illegal activity. These platforms rent their services to anyone, including cybercriminals, and have been used to disrupt and take businesses, public organizations, and individuals offline, causing reputational and financial harm.Nightmare Stresser’s two domains were seized - nightmare-stresser[.]com and nightmarestresser[.]org. Visiting these sites now shows the usual FBI defacement banner saying, “This website has been seized as part of a coordinated law enforcement action taken against illegal DDoS-for-hire services.”To run DDoS attacks, threat actors need infrastructure - hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices infected with malware that forces them to direct their traffic towards a single point. The DoJ’s announcement says nothing about the infrastructure being dismantled, or the malware used to create Nightmare Stresser being discovered or sinkholed. It also does not mention any arrests being made, so it is safe to assume Nightmare Stresser will be back to its usual shenanigans sooner, rather than later.Still, the press release says that the takedown is part of Operation PowerOFF, an ongoing campaign aimed at dismantling DDoS-for-hire infrastructure worldwide, as well as “holding accountable the administrators and users of these illegal services.”Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!So far, more than 100 domains were seized as part of the effort, and 12 people were charged.Via The Hacker News Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.