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The Web Is Broken – Botnet Part 2

a year ago
  • #AI
  • #web-scraping
  • #botnets
  • AI companies aggressively collect data, leading to a surge in web crawlers.
  • Some companies recruit app developers to create botnets via 'network sharing' SDKs in apps.
  • These botnets use users' bandwidth for web crawling, brute-forcing mail servers, etc.
  • Companies like Infatica sell network access through devices with their SDK installed.
  • This business model enables DDoS-like attacks and should be stopped by major tech companies.
  • Trend Micro research confirms suspicions about these companies' practices.
  • Including such SDKs in apps makes developers complicit in spreading malware.
  • Users and admins struggle to detect these SDKs and their traffic.
  • Web scraping is increasingly seen as abusive behavior due to these practices.
  • The 'residential proxy' market is booming, partly driven by AI web scraping.