Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

For the past four years, a sprawling Android-based botnet called Popa has forced millions of consumer TV boxes to relay Internet traffic linked to advertising fraud, account takeovers, and mass data-scraping efforts. This week, researchers from multiple security firms concluded that the Popa botnet is linked to NetNut, a "residential proxy" provider operated by the publicly-traded Israeli firm Alarum Technologies Ltd [NASDAQ: ALAR].

A court-authorized international law enforcement operation has dismantled a criminal proxy service named SocksEscort that enslaved thousands of residential routers worldwide into a botnet for committing large-scale fraud

On the surface, the Superbox media streaming devices for sale at retailers like BestBuy and Walmart may seem like a steal: They offer unlimited access to more than 2,200 pay-per-view and streaming services like Netflix, ESPN and Hulu, all for a one-time fee of around $400. But security experts warn these TV boxes require intrusive software that forces the user's network to relay Internet traffic for others, traffic that is often tied to cybercrime activity such as advertising fraud and account takeovers.

Ads giant complains of damage to its reputation and finances ... and crime, too Google has filed a lawsuit against 25 unnamed individuals in China it accuses of breaking into more than 10 million devices worldwide and using them to build a botnet, called BadBox 2.0, and then to carry out other cybercrimes and fraud.…

Google has filed a lawsuit against the anonymous operators of the Android BadBox 2.0 malware botnet, accusing them of running a global ad fraud scheme against the company's advertising platforms. [...]

The botnet’s still alive and evolving Badbox 2.0, the botnet that infected millions of smart TV boxes and connected devices before private security researchers and law enforcement partially disrupted its infrastructure, is readying for a third round of fraud and digital attacks, according to one of the threat hunters who uncovered the original scheme.…

Over 1 Million Infected Off-Brand Android Devices Pose Global Fraud RiskA China-based botnet operation called BADBOX 2.0 has infected more than 1 million off-brand Android smart devices globally. In an alert, the FBI advised consumers to check their home networks for suspicious activity that could be linked to multiple fraud schemes.

And the associated fraud'n'spy botnet is about to be shut down The US Department of Justice has unsealed indictments against 16 people accused of spreading and using the DanaBot remote-control malware that infected more than 300,000 computers, plus operating a botnet of the same name, and appears set to shutter its operations.…

At least four different threat actors have been identified as involved in an updated version of a massive ad fraud and residential proxy scheme called BADBOX, painting a picture of an interconnected cybercrime ecosystem

Best not to buy cheap hardware and use third-party app stores if you want to stay clear of this vast ad fraud effort Human Security’s Satori research team says it has found a new variant of the remote-controllable Badbox malware, and as many as a million infected Android devices running it to form a massive botnet.…

Off-Brand Android Devices Come Infrected With A TrojanA botnet infected more than 1 million off-brand Android devices manufactured in China, reached consumers with a backdoor already installed. Scammers used the devices for programmatic ad fraud, click fraud and converting the devices into a residential proxy.

Also, ecommerce fraud ring disrupted, another Operation Power Off victory, Sino SOHO botnet spotted, and more in brief The US Department of Justice has charged six people with two separate schemes to defraud Uncle Sam out of millions of dollars connected to IT product and services contracts. …

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today said they arrested the alleged operator of 911 S5, a ten-year-old online anonymity service that was powered by what the director of the FBI called "likely the world's largest botnet ever." The arrest coincided with the seizure of the 911 S5 website and supporting infrastructure, which the government says turned computers running various "free VPN" products into Internet traffic relays that facilitated billions of dollars in online fraud and cybercrime.

Treasury Department Says Botnet Users Committed Fraud, Made Bomb ThreatsThe U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Chinese national Yunhe Wang for his role in directing the 911 S5 botnet, which uses hacked residential computers as proxies and is often used to commit fraud. The government also sanctioned a co-conspirator and a real estate business associate.

Cryptocurrency theft and financial fraud are the new M.O. of the 15-year-old malware operation that has hit organizations around the globe.

Prosecutors in Finland this week commenced their criminal trial against Julius Kivimäki, a 26-year-old Finnish man charged with extorting a once popular and now-bankrupt online psychotherapy practice and thousands of its patients. In a 2,200-page report, Finnish authorities laid out how they connected the extortion spree to Kivimäki, a notorious hacker who was convicted in 2015 of perpetrating tens of thousands of cybercrimes, including data breaches, payment fraud, operating a botnet and calling in bomb threats.

An ad fraud botnet dubbed PEACHPIT leveraged an army of hundreds of thousands of Android and iOS devices to generate illicit profits for the threat actors behind the scheme