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Introduction:
In an extraordinary cybersecurity breakthrough, a stealthy criminal botnet that had silently operated for over 20 years has finally been dismantled. This long-running proxy network preyed on vulnerable Internet of Things (IoT) and end-of-life (EoL) devices to build a covert infrastructure used by cybercriminals worldwide. The takedown marks a critical milestone in cyber defense, achieved through a coordinated effort involving Lumenâs Black Lotus Labs, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice, and Dutch National Police. The botnet’s longevity and evasiveness highlight the evolving threat landscape shaped by underprotected consumer and enterprise tech.
Proxy Botnet Dismantled After 20-Year Reign
A massive and covert botnet has been neutralized after over two decades of activity.
The criminal network exploited unpatched IoT and obsolete SOHO (small office/home office) devices.
Through these devices, hackers provided stealthy proxy services for rent via underground forums.
The network successfully blended malicious traffic with legitimate residential IPs, complicating detection.
Lumenâs Black Lotus Labs collaborated with global law enforcement to dismantle the infrastructure.
The botnet, active since at least 2004, had a significant share of victims in the U.S., followed by Canada and Ecuador.
Researchers noted around 1,000 bots communicating with C2 servers weekly, mostly hosted in Turkey.
Cryptocurrency was the primary payment method; no authentication was needed to access the proxies.
The proxies were heavily used for ad fraud, DDoS attacks, brute-force hacks, and data theft.
Only 10% of the malicious proxies were flagged by VirusTotal, revealing its stealth.
HTTP port 80 and UDP port 1443 were key communication vectors.
The model allowed unlimited use of the proxies by multiple criminal actors simultaneously.
Attackers reused old vulnerabilities rather than discovering new ones to infect devices.
Each rented proxy gave 24-hour access to a unique IP and port, often validated to avoid blacklisting.
Devices remained infected and vulnerable long after initial compromise, enabling prolonged abuse.
The
Lumen null-routed all traffic to and from the known C2 nodes to cut off the botnetâs lifeline.
Indicators of compromise (IOCs) were shared with the global cybersecurity community.
The botnetâs survival for so long demonstrates how legacy security gaps can sustain modern threats.
The incident underscores the urgent need for proactive patching and security hardening of IoT ecosystems.
Spur, a research partner, was acknowledged for their support in this operation.
With increasing digital device adoption worldwide, the threat of proxy botnets is expected to grow.
The takedown is a cautionary tale about underestimating the persistence of legacy cyber threats.
Sophisticated monetization and low detection rates made the infrastructure ideal for cybercriminals.
Many infected devices werenât just vulnerableâthey were essentially invisible to common security tools.
Cross-sector collaboration played a vital role in dismantling the botnetâs infrastructure.
Cybercriminals gravitated to the network due to its low barriers and high utility.
This case highlights how even old-school hacking tactics can still yield long-term success for bad actors.
The threat was not limited to one sectorâeverything from ad networks to cloud services was a potential target.
Real-world criminal services thrived due to the seamless blend of legitimate and malicious traffic.
What Undercode Say:
The collapse of this 20-year-old botnet should not be viewed as the end of an era, but rather as a sharp warning to the cybersecurity world. Its structure was elegantly simple, targeting easily overlooked IoT and SOHO devicesâhardware that typically lacks the protections modern systems boast. The botnetâs monetization strategy required little technical knowledge for users: pay in crypto, gain instant access. No passwords. No IDs. Just anonymity and convenience for cybercriminals.
Its open-door nature made it a low-cost, high-reward venture for a wide spectrum of threat actors, from script kiddies launching brute-force attacks to organized groups carrying out sophisticated ad fraud. That multiple actors could simultaneously exploit the same proxy IP made it a criminal goldmine. Think of it as the Airbnb of malicious IP addressesâconstantly in use, rarely vacant, and under no scrutiny.
The deployment of legacy exploits instead of zero-days shows that innovation wasnât neededâjust persistence and a keen eye for neglected tech. The fact that 90% of these proxies were undetected speaks volumes about the blind spots in current cybersecurity scanning tools. Security professionals often focus on bleeding-edge attacks while ignoring slow-burning threats festering in outdated firmware and forgotten routers.
Whatâs also troubling is the level of infrastructure coordination. The use of Turkish servers, specific port configurations (HTTP 80 and UDP 1443), and the low-noise bot communication model allowed the botnet to stay under the radar. This wasn’t a brute-force battering ramâit was a scalpel. And that precision is what made it so dangerous.
Moreover, this incident reaffirms that cybersecurity is not just about patching devicesâitâs about global cooperation, persistent monitoring, and open information sharing. Without the backbone-level telemetry provided by Lumen and the collaborative force of international law enforcement, this takedown would never have happened. Cyber defense today requires synchronization between public and private sectors, across borders and infrastructures.
With a growing ecosystem of smart devices and an increasingly distributed internet, these threats will likely evolve into more modular, even decentralized forms. A compromised smart doorbell
References:
Reported By: cyberpress.org
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