Threat Management

DownThem DDoS operator sentenced

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that a two-year prison sentence has been given to Matthew Gatrel, who was behind the "downthem.org" and "ampnode.com" websites that provided distributed denial-of-service arsenal subscriptions and a bulletproof DDoS hosting service, respectively, according to BleepingComputer. Gatel was highly involved in both services, whose domains have been seized by the FBI in cooperation with the U.K.'s National Crime Agency and the Dutch Police, according to the Justice Department, which noted that assistance and guidance have been given to threat actors availing the services. "Gatrel offered expert advice to customers of both services, providing guidance on the best attack methods to "down" different types of computers, specific hosting providers, or to bypass DDoS protection services. Gatrel himself often used the DownThem service to demonstrate to prospective customers the power and effectiveness of products, by attacking the customers intended victim and providing proof, via screenshot, that he had severed the victims internet connection," said the Justice Department.

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