This might end up going on our bonehead award, but don’t go creating booter or stresser services

When I was reading Krebs on Security some time back, they talked about someone who ran a booter and stresser service. This can be used as part of a distributed denial of service attack or DDOS attack. This can be looked up on Wikipedia or even through your favorite search engine.

Basicly, this means that someone can set up something where people can crowd your shop so nobody can get in to do legitimate business.

Thinking of Hiring or Running a Booter Service? Think Again. is the article that I saw talking about this problem.

Nick mentioned it briefly last week when he called in, and yes, I do remember this article now.

Most people who operate DDoS-for-hire businesses attempt to hide their true identities and location. Proprietors of these so-called “booter” or “stresser” services — designed to knock websites and users offline — have long operated in a legally murky area of cybercrime law. But until recently, their biggest concern wasn’t avoiding capture or shutdown by the feds: It was minimizing harassment from unhappy customers or victims, and insulating themselves against incessant attacks from competing DDoS-for-hire services.

The article continues with the second paragraph, naming the individual who is the focus of the piece.

And then there are booter store operators like John Dobbs, a 32-year-old computer science graduate student living in Honolulu, Hawaii. For at least a decade until late last year, Dobbs openly operated IPStresser[.]com, a popular and powerful attack-for-hire service that he registered with the state of Hawaii using his real name and address. Likewise, the domain was registered in Dobbs’s name and hometown in Pennsylvania.

As Krebs does in his articles, he does thorough research and uses tools like the domain lookup tools out there that can be used to look up people who own a domain.

His only note on his resume, according to Krebs, is being a freelance developer since 2013. That may not be so bad on the inside, as you’ve had a long standing job. But when you attract atention by sayingggg that you have at least a million page views daily might raise some eyebrows. I can’t even get that many, or at least I’m not aware of it anyway.

In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice seized Dobbs’s IPStresser website and charged him with one count of aiding and abetting computer intrusions. Prosecutors say his service attracted more than two million registered users, and was responsible for launching a staggering 30 million distinct DDoS attacks.

So he attracted tons of traffic and users tht caused a ton of trouble around the net as he was paid to target whatever they asked them to.

There’s plenty more, feel free to check out the full article and send me a note if this should be the idiot of the podcast. Nick already hinted yes.

Now, its time I go and figure out how I’m doing this podcast, or there won’t be on this week.

See you all later!