#Google, #IPIDEA and #android.

A clever proxy used regular android permissions rather than hardware.

Quite with the sketchy apps already, folks.

#infosec #privacy

https://www.techspot.com/news/111143-google-dismantles-massive-proxy-network-turned-9-million.html

Disrupting the World's Largest Residential Proxy Network | Google Cloud Blog

#Google disrupts #IPIDEA residential #proxy networks fueled by #malware

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-disrupts-ipidea-residential-proxy-networks-fueled-by-malware/

#cybercrime #cybersecurity

Residential proxies are a curse. Criminals use them as botnet for DDOS attacks. AI companies pay them to scrape the web for training data in a way that's nigh impossible to block or throttle.

Ipidea operated one of the largest residential proxy networks. Researchers found that Ipidea sold VPN services with "no clear disclosure about turning users' PCs into proxy nodes".

https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/disrupting-largest-residential-proxy-network

via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipidea

Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/js7tql/google_disrupts_large_residential_proxy

#residentialproxy #netsec #IPIDEA

"Google has aimed a knockout blow at a massive cyber weapon that researchers say is running silently on millions of devices in the homes of consumers.

On Wednesday, Google used a federal court order to get dozens of domains belonging to Ipidea removed from the internet, said Google, a unit of Alphabet. Google and security researchers say the mysterious Chinese company is an unsavory enterprise that sneaks unwanted and dangerous software on millions of phones, home computers and Android devices.

Control of the domains allowed Google to both shut down the public websites and technical back-end of the company, which operates using more than a dozen brand names. Google has also taken steps to remove hundreds of apps affiliated with the company from Android devices, it said.

The actions are expected to knock more than nine million Android devices off Ipidea’s network. They target a little known but important part of the internet that has increasingly worried cybersecurity experts.

Called “residential proxy” networks, these online services are built out of apps that are installed on virtually any type of internet-connected device—among them media players, PCs and mobile phones. Companies such as Ipidea then rent out access to the devices to paying customers who want to use the internet anonymously. The businesses operate like Airbnbs for network bandwidth, except the people whose devices are being rented out often don’t realize what is happening."

https://www.wsj.com/tech/google-aims-knockout-blow-at-chinese-company-linked-to-massive-cyber-weapon-3c3fdc40

#CyberSecurity #Google #Ipidea #Android