Jail time for operators of DDoS service used to crash thousands of devices

The men responsible for running Astrostress.com, a DDoS-as-a-service website, will face prison time after their service was used to impair thousands of victims' devices via DDoS attacks.

Scott Raul Esparza, 24, of Katy, Texas, along with his co-conspirators, was found responsible for Astrostress.com, a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack platform that allowed subscribers to disrupt normal computer traffic by overloading the site or device with internet traffic.

DDoS attacks are malicious and involve computers and other devices, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, that have been infected with malicious software. The threat actor can then control these devices remotely.

These bots then form groups called botnets, and the bad actor can send instructions to each bot.

The bots can be used to target the victim’s IP address and a high level of traffic is sent their way, resulting in the network or server becoming overwhelmed. This essentially shuts down a site or server, as no legitimate traffic can get through.

Astrostress is a booter service, which refers to its ability to boot its victims off the internet. Customers were offered varying degrees of subscription, depending on how many attacks they wished to carry out and to what degree they wanted to overwhelm victims' devices.

From 2019 to 2022, Esparza operated and administrated this service with his 21-year-old counterpart, Shamar Shattock, of Margate, Florida.

Esparza was in charge of procuring the attack servers and maintaining attack functionality, while helping Shattock market their services. He also hired another person who helped respond to customers, the DoJ said.

According to the DoJ, Esparza had no right to use the third-party computers that he exploited to generate increased attack power made available via the DDoS service. Esparza also knew that his clients were using the site to attack other people’s computers.

Furthermore, the perpetrator conducted thousands of attacks using the Astrostress website.

The website was shut down in 2022, and Esparza called his co-conspirator, leaving a voicemail urging Shattock to “clear” all social media accounts associated with Astrostress so nothing would get linked back to them.

Shattock pleaded guilty and is due to attend a sentencing hearing in the following months. He could face up to five years in federal prison.

Esparza pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit unauthorized impairment of a protected computer and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said.

Esparza will face a mere nine months in prison accompanied by two years of supervised release with conditions including a full computer monitoring program after his prison sentence is served.