Law Enforcement Shuts Down Botnet Made of Tens of Thousands of Hacked Routers

An international law enforcement operation shut down SocksEscort, a service allegedly used by cybercriminals to facilitate ransomware attacks, DDoS attacks, and the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The botnet comprised tens of thousands of hacked routers, though no specific technical details or malware names were disclosed. The takedown involved collaboration between agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice and Europol, though no exact date for the operation was provided. The service’s activities were linked to enabling multiple forms of cybercrime, though no victim counts or financial impacts were specified. No CVE IDs or additional technical indicators were mentioned in the report.