About 50 of the most popular platforms available for hire to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against critical Internet infrastructure have been shut down, their operators arrested in a massive international law enforcement crackdown called Operation Power Off.

Europol, along with law enforcement from the UK, US, the Netherlands, Poland, and Germany participated in the takedown targeting DDoS-for-hire services, also called "booter services."

Seven administrators have been arrested, according to Europol's announcement, adding that just one of the services shut down by Operation Power Off was responsible for more than 30 million DDoS attacks.

"DDoS booter services have effectively lowered the entry barrier into cybercrime: for a fee as low as EUR 10, any low-skilled individual can launch DDoS attacks with the click of a button, knocking offline whole websites and networks by barraging them with traffic," Europol's announcement of the success of Operation Power Off said. "The damage they can do to victims can be considerable, crippling businesses financially and depriving people of essential services offered by banks, government institutions and police forces."