Google’s Cyber Disruption Unit Kicks Its First Goal

Google’s Cyber Disruption Unit Kicks Its First Goal

Google’s announcement last week that it had disrupted the world’s largest residential proxy network, IPIDEA, was welcome news. These networks are key enablers of cybercrime, and Google’s action will make a significant dent in the residential proxy ecosystem.

Residential proxy networks sell the ability to route traffic through home and business IP addresses so that attackers can evade IP blocklists. Traffic in these networks is routed through everything from compromised smart devices to home users’ computers. Sometimes the home users actually opt in to joining these networks, willingly installing the enabling software to earn “passive income” from their spare bandwidth. Most of the time, however, device owners are unaware. The proxy functionality is preloaded on devices or inadvertently installed via malware or trojanized software.

When it comes to IPIDEA, one way it acquired proxies was to pay developers to…