Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, said on Thursday it had disrupted a large internet-connected device network linked to Israel that was being used to conceal and route malicious cyber activity.
The technology company said it had taken action against the residential proxy network NetNut, also known as Boba, which is operated by an Israeli company. The operation was carried out in cooperation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Lumen Technologies and other partners.
Google said it had disabled the accounts and services used for the command-and-control operations of malware linked to the NetNut network. It also shared technical information about the group’s infrastructure with law enforcement agencies and industry partners to support wider enforcement efforts.
Residential proxy networks allow users to route internet traffic through IP addresses assigned to ordinary consumers. This can hide the source of online activity and help bypass security protections. While such networks have legitimate uses, they are frequently exploited in cybercrime because they conceal the true origin of internet traffic.
In a blog post, Google said: “We believe our coordinated actions have caused significant degradation to NetNut’s proxy network and its business operations, reducing the available pool of devices for the proxy operator by millions.”
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