TLDR Tech / InfoSec
Authorities Disrupt SocksEscort Proxy Botnet Exploiting 369,000 IPs Across 163 Countries (4 minute read)
Law enforcement shut down the SocksEscort proxy service, which sold traffic tunneled through 369,000 infected home and small-business routers in 163 countries since at least 2021. Operation Lightning seized 34 domains, 23 servers, and froze $3.5 million in crypto linked to more than €5 million in proxy sales. Criminals used the network for fraud, ransomware, DDoS, and CSAM, abusing RCE and command injection flaws in some 1,200 router models and, in some cases, flashing custom firmware that permanently disabled updates.
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