Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reports:
In 2016, hackers using a network of compromised internet-connected devices — vulnerable security cameras and routers — knocked some of the then biggest websites on the internet offline for several hours. Twitter, Reddit, GitHub and Spotify all went down intermittently that day, victims of what was at the time one of the largest distributed denial-of-service attacks in history.
[…]
Since then, no DDoS attack has ever been so newsworthy, but the problem hasn’t gotten away. On December 15, 2022, right before Christmas — historically a popular time to launch DDoS attacks — the FBI announced that it had taken down dozens of websites that sell what are called booter or stressers, essentially DDoS-for-hire services. These are relatively cheap services that allow people with low or no hacking skills to carry out DDoS attacks.
On the same day, the feds also announced that they had arrested seven people who allegedly ran those services. Then, the FBI targeted those services and took down more booter sites in May.
Read an interview with the lead FBI investigor in those investigations at TechCrunch.