Saturday, April 18, 2026
Bleeping Computer: Operation PowerOFF international law enforcement action. .
The ongoing operation is supported by Europol and involves
authorities in 21 countries. Coordinated efforts led to the arrest of
four people, taking offline 53 domains, and issuing 25 search warrants.
Operation PowerOFF identifies 75k DDoS users, takes down 53 domains
More than 75,000 individuals using distributed denial-of-service
(DDoS) platforms for disruptive attacks have been warned through emails
and letters during the latest phase of the Operation PowerOFF
international law enforcement action. . .
“Leading up to the action week, a series of operational sprints took place, gathering experts from national authorities across the globe to carry out actions against high-value target users of DDoS-for-hire platforms and raise awareness about the illegality of these activities,” Europol says.
“During these sprints, the participating countries disrupted illegal booter services, dismantling the technical infrastructure that supports illegal DDoS.”
The operation has a global span, and includes multiple European Union countries as well as Australia, Thailand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Brazil.
Source: Europol
“Booter services” are DDoS-for-hire platforms that allow users to pay
for renting the firepower of DDoS swarms, typically consisting of
compromised routers and IoTs, and directing it to their intended
targets.
- Some operators of these services attempt to hide their real goal by claiming they are used for legitimate stress testing, but lack verification of target ownership and hence are still used for illegal attacks.
- The latest Operation PowerOFF action was built on
Europol states that the operation is now entering its prevention phase, which includes launching awareness campaigns and disruption measures.
These involve placing search engine ads aimed at young people seeking DDoS tools, removing from search results more than 100 URLs that promote these illegal services, and adding on-chain warning messages tied to illicit payments.
CISA flags Apache ActiveMQ flaw as actively exploited in attacks
CISA warned that attackers are now exploiting a high-severity Apache ActiveMQ vulnerability, which was patched earlier this month after going undetected for 13 years.
April 17, 2026
05:30 AM
Microsoft: Some Windows servers enter reboot loops after April patches
Microsoft warns that some Windows domain controllers are entering restart loops after installing the April 2026 security updates.
- April 17, 2026
- 03:59 AM
Man gets 30 months for selling thousands of hacked DraftKings accounts
23-year-old Kamerin Stokes of Memphis, Tennessee, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for selling access to tens of thousands of hacked DraftKings accounts.
- April 17, 2026
- 03:10 AM
Recently leaked Windows zero-days now exploited in attacks
Threat actors are exploiting three recently disclosed Windows security vulnerabilities in attacks aimed at gaining SYSTEM or elevated administrator permissions.
- April 17, 2026
- 02:14 AM
CARTOON CAROUSEL: By POLITICO STAFF 04/17/2026 05:00 AM EDT
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
CARTOON CAROUSEL
Anthropic Gets White House Opening
The Trump administration recognizes the power of Anthropic's new Claude model, Mythos, and its highly sophisticated — and potentially dangerous — ability to breach cybersecurity defenses.
Scoop: Bessent and Wiles met Anthropic's Amodei in sign of thaw
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