‘Popa’ Botnet Linked to Publicly-Traded Israeli Firm
3 hours ago
- The Popa botnet, linked to NetNut (Alarum Technologies), uses millions of Android TV boxes as residential proxies for advertising fraud, account takeovers, and data scraping.
- Popa is a plugin for the Vo1d botnet, targeting unofficial Android TV boxes that come pre-installed with proxy software, often without user consent.
- Qurium and Synthient investigations link Popa to NetNut through domain registrations, SDK analysis, and founder Moishi Kramer's involvement with Ninjatech.
- Despite NetNut's claims of consent mechanisms, researchers found most Popa variants and publishers do not ask for user consent, and KYC procedures are minimal.
- Popa operates 1.5–2.5 million IPs daily, with widespread resale across multiple proxy services, amplifying its danger.
- Residential proxies are heavily used for AI data scraping, causing service disruptions for libraries, nonprofits, and academic repositories.
- Samsung and LG smart TVs have thousands of apps with proxy SDKs, turning devices into proxy nodes, often without meaningful user consent.
- Infoblox reports 65% of corporate customers query residential proxy domains, posing security and reputational risks.
- Legal actions (e.g., Google, HUMAN Security) have disrupted related botnets, but Popa domains were quickly re-registered.