Astrostress Operator Gets Prison Sentence for Facilitating Thousands of DDoS Attacks

Scott Raul Esparza, a 24-year-old from Katy, Texas, has been sentenced to nine months in federal prison for running Astrostress, a website that facilitated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The sentencing, handed down by United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, also includes two years of supervised release with stringent computer monitoring conditions.

Esparza, who pleaded guilty on March 6, was charged with conspiracy to commit unauthorized impairment of a protected computer and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. His operation, Astrostress.com, was a DDoS-for-hire service that allowed users to launch DDoS attacks against targeted computers.

DDoS overwhelm the victim computers with internet traffic, effectively rendering them inoperative. They pose a significant threat to online infrastructure by incapacitating targeted systems, which can lead to substantial economic and operational damage. Entities relying on uninterrupted online services, such as e-commerce platforms, financial institutions, and critical infrastructure providers, can suffer significant setbacks due to such attacks.

From 2019 until September 2022, Esparza co-administered Astrostress.com with Shamar Shattock, 21, of Margate, Florida. The website offered subscription-based services, allowing customers to choose the number and intensity of the attacks they wished to conduct. Esparza's responsibilities included procuring attack servers, maintaining the attack functionality, and assisting in marketing the service. Additionally, he hired a co-conspirator to handle customer support for the website.

Astrostress.com enabled global users to create accounts and launch attacks on internet-connected computers. Esparza conducted thousands of attacks himself, targeting computers without authorization. During his administration, from September 2021 to September 2022, the website facilitated attacks on tens of thousands of protected computers, significantly disrupting their availability.

Esparza neither owned nor had the rights to use the third-party computers he exploited to generate the amplified attack power made available via the Astrostress.com website. He was aware that his customers were using the site to attack computers that did not belong to the customers, and which the customers had no authorization to impair. Esparza personally conducted thousands of attacks using his own service.

U.S. Department of Justice

The website's operations ceased in September 2022 after intervention by the FBI. Following the shutdown, Esparza left a voicemail for Shattock instructing him to clear his social media accounts to avoid incrimination. Shattock, who also pleaded guilty in March 2023, is awaiting sentencing and faces up to five years in federal prison.

The investigation into Astrostress.com was part of ‘Operation PowerOFF,’ a multinational effort aimed at dismantling DDoS-for-hire services.