Security News > 2022 > May > A YouTuber is encouraging everyone to DDoS Russia—how risky is this?
A DDoS attack works by several machines repeatedly flooding servers of a website with excessive requests in a short span of time, such that the servers run out of their allotted bandwidth, and become unresponsive.
Conducting DDoS attacks is a criminal offense in most jurisdictions.
These words are not taken lightly, as the US Department of Justice has sentenced numerous people for conducting DDoS attacks in the past, including attacks against gamers, using IoT devices to conduct attacks, and for running DDoS services.
A worst-case scenario surmised by Avast Threat Labs is, should the C&C server be compromised, everyone taking part in the DDoS attack could be identified by their username and location.
"Hacktivists have been anonymously promoting and educating members on how to use DDoS attack tools in the darker corners of YouTube, but an influencer with over 250k subscribers posting a professionally edited video is bringing hacktivism into a new era," Geenens told BleepingComputer in an email.
"Rules are being rewritten. Is DDoS a crime? A word of caution. Depending on the perspective, DDoS will be considered and prosecuted as a crime."