Denial of service attacks for a fee: Understanding ‘booter’ operators

Denial of service attacks for a fee: Understanding ‘booter’ operators

The most frequent users of ‘booter’ or ‘stresser’ services are online gamers. These services are used to gain an advantage over an opponent by ‘booting’ them off the game with a denial of service attack. Booter services have customer-facing websites, whereby payments are taken for subscriptions, and attacks are requested.

In order to understand this black market resource, the University of Cambridge asked those providing the services about themselves and their activities. The operation of booter services requires not just technical expertise, but also information about the market for denial of service attacks and how to monetise this. The presentation will discuss how this knowledge is obtained, exposure to these services, and the escalation from using to operating booter services, and to other forms of cybercrime.

About the presenter

Dr Alice Hutchings

Dr Alice Hutchings is a Senior Research Associate at the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge. A criminologist, her research interests include understanding cybercrime offenders and the prevention, intervention and disruption of online crime. She is a researcher in the Cambridge Cloud Cybercrime Centre, a multi-disciplinary initiative combining expertise from the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, Institute of Criminology and Faculty of Law. From 2011 to 2013, she was a Senior Research Analyst at the Australian Institute of Criminology.