Four Dutch men arrested in international operation against DDoS cyberattacks

Four Dutch men between 22 and 26 years old will be prosecuted for conducting Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. The police found the suspects after a large-scale international police operation against DDoS attackers. A popular site used to buy the cyberattacks was also taken down in the Netherlands.

The men from Rijen, Voorhout, Lelystad, and Barneveld were questioned last week by police. One of them is suspected of committing 4,169 DDoS attacks, the other three committed hundreds of attacks.

According to Europol, DDoS attacks are platforms that enable cybercriminals and hacktivists to flood targets with illegal traffic, rendering websites and other web-based services inaccessible.

In total, the police were able to identify 200 suspects. They will be notified with the news that the police see them as suspects this week, said the police’s cyber specialist, Iris Koster.

“At least ten users can expect a visit from the police in the next few weeks for a warning conversation. Hundreds of identified Dutch users will receive a letter or e-mail from the police to warn them.” The police expect to conduct more interrogations in the near future and have not ruled out arrests.

The international collaboration of 15 countries with Europol has been ongoing for years, but an operation to make a more significant impact was started a year ago, a police spokesperson said.

The operation, known as PowerOFF, resulted in authorities seizing 27 of the most popular platforms used to carry out these attacks. Three administrators of these platforms were arrested in France and Germany.

“The international operation PowerOFF is a powerful signal toward cybercriminals,” said Koster. “Criminals who earn money by shutting down websites are criminally punishable, and they are going to know that now.”