Google Targets Residential Proxy Services Fueled by Malware Operations

The underlying ecosystem of legitimate proxy and VPN providers might appear to be fragmented at the surface, but as far as Google is concerned, there is something much more coordinated and deceptive below the surface. In a recent investigation conducted by Google’s Threat Intelligence Group, an extensive operation centered on an elaborate network known as IPIDEA was uncovered.

IPIDEA, the network, allegedly exercised covert control over several proxy and VPN brands that presented themselves as independent, trustworthy entities.

It is now clear that these brands are managed by the very same malicious operators, who employ misleading practices to steal residential IP addresses from unwitting users and combine them with an immense proxy infrastructure, which is the result of the research. 

As part of the IPIDEA ecosystem of proxy and virtual private network services, Google has taken coordinated action to dismantle what it believes to be one of the largest residential proxy networks in the world, as it moves against it.

Through this effort, which is being conducted in collaboration with external partners, it is being hoped that infrastructure will be ripped apart that has historically enabled cybercrime, espionage, and large-scale fraud by making use of the false identities of ordinary internet users to disguise malicious activity behind their internet connections.

Using IPIDEA’s software development kits, Google’s Th

[…]
Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the source for the rest of the article.