UK authorities have charged an eighteen-year-old with running a DDoS booter service that was used to launch DDoS attacks on legitimate businesses across the world.
According to authorities, the teenager’s name is Jack Chappell, 18, of Stockport, a small town southeast of Manchester, UK.
Investigators say Chappell created malware that he installed on devices around the world. He used this malware to create a DDoS botnet to which he then granted access to paying customers.
Clients used this DDoS booter service to launch attacks on various companies across the globe. Investigators say that Chappell’s booter was the one that took down NatWest’s online banking system several times in the summer of 2015.
Authorities say Chappell’s DDoS-for-hire platform was also responsible for DDoS attacks on the infrastructure of T-Mobile, EE, Vodafone, O2, BBC, BT, Amazon, Netflix, Virgin Media, and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
Following years of investigations, the West Midlands Regional Cyber Crime Unit, together with Israeli Police, the FBI, and Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, have tracked down the teenager, currently a student at an unnamed university.
Authorities say Chappell had a partner, an American national, about whom they did not reveal any information.
West Midlands Police charged the teenager today with impairing the operation of computers under the Computer Misuse Act and encouraging or assisting an offense and money laundering crime proceeds.
Chappell will appear in a Manchester court tomorrow, July 4, 2017. Authorities did not release the name of Chappell’s DDoS booter service.
Source:Â https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/uk-teen-charged-with-running-ddos-booter-service/