Europol and the U.S. Department of Justice have cracked down on the malicious proxy network SocksEscort and frozen approximately $3.5 million in cryptocurrency.

Europol and the U.S. Department of Justice announced a crackdown on the malicious proxy network SocksEscort, freezing approximately $3.5 million worth of cryptocurrency linked to the network. Codenamed Operation Lightning, the operation saw law enforcement agencies seize 34 domains and 23 servers in seven countries. Investigations revealed that the network infected approximately 369,000 routers and IoT devices with malware, providing over 35,000 proxy nodes in 163 countries, and was used for ransomware attacks, DDoS attacks, and bank and crypto account takeover scams. (Decrypt)