Authorities Disrupt SocksEscort Proxy Botnet Exploiting 369,000 IPs Across 163 Countries
SocksEscort, a criminal proxy service that enslaved thousands of home routers globally into a botnet for widespread fraud, has been taken down by a court-authorized multinational law enforcement operation.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) reported that SocksEscort infiltrated home and small business internet routers with malware. SocksEscort was able to redirect internet traffic through the compromised routers thanks to the virus. Customers purchased this access from SocksEscort.
Since the summer of 2020, SocksEscort ("socksescort[.]com") has reportedly offered to sell access to about 369,000 distinct IP addresses across 163 countries; as of February 2026, the service listed almost 8,000 compromised routers. 2,500 of these were found in the United States.
According to SocksEs...