Federal prosecutors have charged 22-year-old Ethan Foltz of Eugene, Oregon, with aiding and abetting computer intrusions for allegedly creating and running “Rapper Bot,” a distributed-denial-of-service network blamed for knocking social-media platform X offline in March. The criminal complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, describes Rapper Bot as one of the most powerful DDoS-for-hire services ever documented. Investigators say the botnet, also called Eleven Eleven Botnet and CowBot, hijacked between 65,000 and 95,000 digital video recorders and Wi-Fi routers to launch more than 370,000 attacks against about 18,000 targets in 80 countries since at least 2021. Typical assaults generated traffic of two to three terabits per second, and officials believe the largest barrage may have exceeded six terabits per second. Authorities seized control of the network on 6 August after executing a search warrant at Foltz’s residence; the defendant allegedly disabled the botnet’s attack functions and handed over administrative credentials. Foltz faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The case forms part of Operation PowerOFF, an international effort to dismantle DDoS-for-hire infrastructures.