TechCrunch Startup News FBI and Dutch police seize and shut down botnet of hacked routers
May 13, 2025
A significant international operation has taken down a botnet composed of hacked routers, exposing vulnerabilities in internet-connected devices. Four individuals, including three Russians and one from Kazakhstan, have been indicted for their roles in this cybercrime. The episode dives into the illicit activities surrounding this botnet, which provided proxy services and generated impressive revenues. Discover the implications of this crackdown on cybersecurity and the ongoing fight against cybercriminals.
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Global Botnet Dismantled
- The FBI, Dutch police, and US officials dismantled a major botnet made from hacked routers across 80+ countries.
- The botnet disguised malicious traffic as residential IPs, making cyberattacks harder to detect and trace.
Proxy Services Mask Cybercrime
- The indicted operators created proxy services built on compromised routers, deceiving customers by claiming legitimacy.
- These proxies enabled cybercriminals to anonymize their activities using IPs of infected residential devices.
Residential IPs Provide Anonymity
- Criminal use of residential proxies exploits the trust given to residential IPs by internet security.
- This approach helps hackers avoid detection by making malicious traffic appear as legitimate user activity.