FBI Seizes NetNut Proxy Platform, Popa Botnet

In a significant blow to the cybercriminal ecosystem, federal authorities have dismantled NetNut, a sprawling residential proxy service operated by publicly-traded Israeli company Alarum Technologies. The FBI coordinated with industry partners to seize hundreds of domains associated with both NetNut and the Popa botnet, which had compromised an estimated two million devices without their owners' knowledge or consent. The takedown follows extensive research from multiple security firms that connected the seemingly legitimate proxy service to a massive network of compromised devices, primarily smart TVs and streaming boxes.

The NetNut platform functioned by installing software on consumer devices that effectively turned them into residential proxy nodes. These nodes were then rented to third parties, who predominantly used them to relay malicious traffic associated with content scraping, advertising fraud, and account takeover activities. According to Google's Threat Intelligence Group, in a single week during