The US Justice Department announced on Thursday that law enforcement agencies in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom had demolished a global network of internet-connected devices that had been infiltrated by Russian cyber criminals and used for harmful purposes.
According to the department, the ‘RSOCKS’ botnet included millions of infected computers and devices around the world, including ‘Internet of Things’ gear like routers and smart garage openers.
According to the government, RSOCKS users pay between $30 and $200 each day to channel illicit internet activity through hijacked computers in order to mask or hide the true source of the traffic.
‘It’s thought that users of this type of proxy service were conducting large-scale attacks against authentication services, also known as credential stuffing, and anonymizing themselves when accessing compromised social media accounts or sending malicious email, such as phishing messages,’ the report stated.
According to the department, RSOCKS has affected several big public and private enterprises, including a university, a hotel, a television studio, and an electronics manufacturing. It didn’t mention any of them by name.
Post Your Comments