Two Israeli 18-year-olds have been arrested in connection with an FBI investigation into vDOS, a cyberattack service that has been credited with perpetrating “a majority” of the DDoS attacks over the last few years.
Image: CC/Wikipedia
According to security blogger Brian Krebs, the vDOS site has reportedly raked in $US618,000 ($819,298) for its services in two years. The site is currently down, which is credited to a bogus site claim filed by one of its victims, BackConnect Security.
As with so many hacker and cybersecurity busts, the evidence trail that led to the two accused men was remarkably careless. The organisation refused to attack Israeli sites in their “home country”. vDOS was hosted on a server that was traced back to Huri and SMS notifications pointed to both men. Most bafflingly, the two men co-authored a technical paper about DDoS attacks that was published in an Israeli security magazine, Digitals Whispers. Huri signed the paper with his real name and Bidani used the email address “Raziel.b7@gmail.com”, which was also the email for one of the admin of vDOS.
Krebs first identified Itay Huri and Yarden Bidani as being behind the group in a report based on a copy of the vDOS database that he claims to have obtained. The Marker, an Israeli news site, reported on the weekend that both men had been arrested. They have since been released on $US10,000 ($13,257) bonds and placed under house arrest. Their passports have been taken away and they are forbidden from accessing the internet or any other telecommunications equipment for 30 days.
It’s unclear if the two men will be extradited and formally charged, but rest assured there will never be another DDoS attack ever again. Got ’em boys.
[Krebs on Security, The Marker via Engadget]