As part of an international joint operation coordinated by Europol called Operation PowerOFF, the Finnish Police have taken down illegal DDoS services intended for carrying out distributed denial of service attacks. The users registered with these services include thousands of people from Finland.
Operation PowerOFF is an international law enforcement operation launched to seize and shut down websites offering DDoS-for-hire services, to take criminal investigative measures against the administrators and users of these services, and to take preventive action. The international joint operation involves law enforcement agencies from 21 countries.
Booters and stressers, available on the net, are load testing services used for carrying out denial of service attacks. The authorities can prevent criminal activity and harm caused to victims by taking down illegal services enabling such criminal activities. The most recent action taken during the operation in April 2026 involved seizing 53 illegal booter and stresser services. The services previously seized during the operation had over three million registered users. The law enforcement agencies have opened criminal investigations against these persons and taken coordinated preventive action across the world.
Police action targets thousands of users from Finland
As part of the operation’s preventive action, the participating law enforcement agencies approach the users of the disabled services by sending a targeted warning letter or e-mail to them. The National Bureau of Investigation will send an e-mail to those who used the services from Finland between 2013-2024. At the previous stage of the operation in 2024, the National Bureau of Investigation sent a targeted warning message to hundreds of users. This time, a warning message will be sent to thousands of users in Finland.
– The large number of users shows that the use of services offered by crime-as-a-service providers is also alarmingly common in Finland. The aim of targeted warning messages is to prevent criminal activity by reminding the website users of the illegality and possible consequences of using DDoS services, says Senior Detective Superintendent Mikko Rauhamaa of the National Bureau of Investigation.
In the warning message, the person is informed that they have registered with a website offering illegal services and that the police have seized this website. The user is warned of the illegality of the site and urged to stop using the service.
A denial of service attack is a crime
It is alarmingly easy and common to commit cybercrime using crime-as-a-service providers. With DDos services, even unexperienced users with no significant technical skills can carry out denial of service attacks by pressing a few keys. However, some users may have advanced technical skills and operate on a large scale.
The use of booter services is especially common among young people. Those who carry out denial of service attacks might do so, particularly at first, out of curiosity or a desire to experiment, or to bully someone. Denial of service attacks may also be motivated by a financial benefit and carried out, for example, to extort money from the target, or they may be ideologically motivated, such as hacktivist attacks. Denial of service attacks can cause serious harm and damage, the extent of which can be difficult or even impossible to predict.
Cyberattacks cause harm and damage to both individuals and organisations. Denial of service attacks enable, for example, disruption of online banking or health services, thus preventing the customers from using the services. To restore their services, the compromised organisations might have to take extensive measures, which might cause immense costs. At worst, denial of service attacks can impact critical infrastructure, such as the operation of emergency response centres.
– The police take cybercrime seriously. Even an attack carried out with the intention of bullying someone can have serious and long-lasting consequences that might be difficult for the attacker to foresee. A denial of service attack carried out with an automated tool is also a crime, reminds Senior Detective Superintendent Rauhamaa.
Prevention has a major role to play in combating cybercrime
Preventive and criminal investigative measures are important tools for the authorities combating cybercrime. Besides dismantling criminal tools available on open networks, Operation PowerOFF focuses on actively preventing any future attacks. Prevention campaigns run in Finland and other countries have targeted, among others, young people who search illegal DDoS tools in browsers or watch tutorials on the subject on video service platforms. The aim is to raise young people’s awareness of the fact that booter services offering denial of service attacks are illegal, as well as to prevent criminal activity.
Law enforcement authorities have also made requests to search engine servers to delete websites providing criminal services from search engine results. During a joint action day, over a hundred websites offering illegal DDoS services were deleted from search engine results.
No action is required from those who receive a warning message from the police. Those who have received an e-mail from the police may, if they wish, contact the National Bureau of Investigation at poweroff.krp@poliisi.
