Rsocks, a popular proxy service, was just seized by the DOJ

The infrastructure of a Russian botnet used to hijack millions of devices around the world has been dismantled by the US Department of Justice.

According to prosecutors, Rsocks provided its web proxy service, which was operated by unnamed Russian cybercriminals, by hacking into millions of computers, smartphones, and Internet of Things devices, and converting them into unwitting proxy server, allowing paying customers to use theip addresses of the compromised devices without the

The account of Rsocks claimed to have access to more than eight million devices.

Proxy services, which are not necessarily illegal, can be used to give clients access to the internet for a fee. Prosecutors say Rsocks was hacking into millions of devices.

Customers could access a storefront on the internet where they could rent access to proxies. Once purchased, the customer could download a list of addresses and ports associated with one or more of the botnets back-end server, and then route malicious internet traffic through the compromised devices to mask or hide the true source of the traffic.

The Justice Department said in a press release that it is believed that the users of this type of proxy service were conducting large scale attacks againstauthentication services, also known ascredential stuffing, and anonymizing themselves when accessing compromised social media accounts.

The FBI used undercover purchases to gain access to the Rsocks botnet. The 325,000 compromised victim devices were mostly located in the US.

Several large public and private entities have fallen victim to the Rsocks botnet, including a university, a hotel, and an electronics manufacturer.

Cyber criminals will not escape justice no matter where they are located. We will relentlessly pursue them while using all the tools at our disposal to disrupt their threats and prosecute those responsible.

The Rsocks botnet is the second of its kind that has been dismantled. In April, an FBI operation revealed that it had disrupted another botnet, which was operated by a group of hackers working for Russia.

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