According to Lumen Technologies, the Ngioweb botnet powers the NSOCKS residential proxy service along with VN5Socks and Shopsocks5. The botnet generates a daily average of 35,000 bots, with 40% remaining active for more than a month, mostly targeting SOHO routers and IoT devices. Most proxies originate from the U.S., and the malware's infection process is highly automated, taking as little as 10 minutes to monetize devices. First discovered in 2018, Ngioweb is operated by the financially motivated group "Water Barghest," using automated scripts to exploit vulnerable IoT devices running Windows and Linux. Multiple vulnerabilities, including zero-days, are leveraged by the attack chain to compromise IoT devices such as cameras, routers, and access controls. An initial loader network routed infected devices to a loader-C2 node, forming a two-tiered botnet architecture. NSOCKS, where proxies are sold globally for $0.20 to $1.50, is a popular marketplace for infected devices. By selecting proxies based on location, speed, and device type, NSOCKS allows malicious activities like credential stuffing and DDoS attacks. In addition to amplifying cyberattacks, the infrastructure enables threat actors to run independent proxy services. Cybersecurity firms such as Lumen Technologies are blocking Ngioweb traffic in an effort to disrupt this activity. The growth of the residential proxy market is driven by cybercriminals and advanced persistent threat groups seeking to obfuscate their identities. NSOCKS offers endpoints in 180 countries, facilitating global attacks and enabling specific targeting of entities like .gov or .edu domains, increasing the risk of severe damage.
A major cyberattack has severely disrupted airport operations across Europe, targeting a widely used aviation software provider and causing chaos at major hubs such as London Heath...
Cybersecurity researchers recently discovered a highly advanced Russian botnet operation leveraging DNS misconfigurations and hijacking MikroTik routers in order to spread malware ...
A critical security vulnerability was discovered in Fortra's GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer (MFT) product, labeled CVE-2025-10035, with a CVSS score of 10.0. This is a bug ab...