In the last few months I've seen many advertisements for a device they call the "Super Box" - it's essentially an (Android based?) IPTV device with every channel imaginable. The people I know with them paid around $300 and there isn't a monthly fee.
I have a hunch they're trading free TV for becoming a residential proxy unknowingly. Would love to capture network traffic from one and see what's really going on.
The fact that people are willing to buy these super sketchy devices and plug them into their networks without a second thought is kinda scary.
I guess the increased bandwidth should at least show up on the ISP bill since that's the only place anyone would notice.
But we're pretty far from having a system that isn't perfect for botnets and malicious proxies hiding on your network.
Kinda crazy how my ISP doesn't even show me my usage on the bill. But then again every time I call them for something, they try to convince me I need something more than the minimum plan, and they're BS depends on me not knowing which tier I need.
recently had to research "residential proxy", and the number of websites that claim that they have millions of IPs on hand was very strange. then the fact that a lot of them work in the exact same way, and a lot of them accepted payment mostly in crypto was very strange. so now connecting the dots, makes sense now why these "residential proxy" websites looked and worked the same way
I've been thinking about building an actually-ethical residential proxy system, for censorship-evasion purposes.
The internet in a growing number of countries is censored, but different content categories are censored in each jurisdiction. Many sites and services also block known VPNs (i.e. non-residential IPs), so that doesn't work as a bypass in all cases.
I have trusted friends in other countries, so by mutual agreement we could set up wireguard links for each other to use (subject to agreed terms). It just needs some way to intelligently route traffic depending on which jurisdictions will allow which requests (i.e. "which is the lowest-latency link that will allow this request").
They're funding criminal organizations in the same way you're funding one if you get your hair cut at a hair salon which works as a front for money laundering.
That is, mostly unknowingly, perhaps suspecting what's going on, but politely trying to ignore it for their own convenience.
> ... renting hundreds of thousands of infected Internet of Things (IoT) devices to proxy services...
And that's why I will never buy any IoT devices that require an internet connection to work. Only IoT devices in my house are those that connect to my own server and never see the light of the internet.
In the last few months I've seen many advertisements for a device they call the "Super Box" - it's essentially an (Android based?) IPTV device with every channel imaginable. The people I know with them paid around $300 and there isn't a monthly fee.
I have a hunch they're trading free TV for becoming a residential proxy unknowingly. Would love to capture network traffic from one and see what's really going on.
The fact that people are willing to buy these super sketchy devices and plug them into their networks without a second thought is kinda scary.
Very fascinating. I saw multiple people predict that these ddos attacks were just advertisement for the Aisuru services.
How can regular users of Android, smart TV's, etc. identify these IoT devices that have been compromised?
I guess the increased bandwidth should at least show up on the ISP bill since that's the only place anyone would notice.
But we're pretty far from having a system that isn't perfect for botnets and malicious proxies hiding on your network.
Kinda crazy how my ISP doesn't even show me my usage on the bill. But then again every time I call them for something, they try to convince me I need something more than the minimum plan, and they're BS depends on me not knowing which tier I need.
recently had to research "residential proxy", and the number of websites that claim that they have millions of IPs on hand was very strange. then the fact that a lot of them work in the exact same way, and a lot of them accepted payment mostly in crypto was very strange. so now connecting the dots, makes sense now why these "residential proxy" websites looked and worked the same way
also note that all of them claim that their residential proxies are "ethically sourced" (unlikely their competitors, I guess?)
there's no such thing as an ethically sourced residential proxy.
Their are services that allow users to share their bandwidth in return for some cents per GB, a way to passively earn income.
I've been thinking about building an actually-ethical residential proxy system, for censorship-evasion purposes.
The internet in a growing number of countries is censored, but different content categories are censored in each jurisdiction. Many sites and services also block known VPNs (i.e. non-residential IPs), so that doesn't work as a bypass in all cases.
I have trusted friends in other countries, so by mutual agreement we could set up wireguard links for each other to use (subject to agreed terms). It just needs some way to intelligently route traffic depending on which jurisdictions will allow which requests (i.e. "which is the lowest-latency link that will allow this request").
> I've been thinking about building an actually-ethical residential proxy system, for censorship-evasion purposes.
That thing already exist and is called Tor Snowflake.
And the concept of web of trust and signing parties just gets more and more valuable for each day!
So not only are AI companies stealing content, they’re actively funding criminal organisations too. Wonderful
They're funding criminal organizations in the same way you're funding one if you get your hair cut at a hair salon which works as a front for money laundering.
That is, mostly unknowingly, perhaps suspecting what's going on, but politely trying to ignore it for their own convenience.
> ... renting hundreds of thousands of infected Internet of Things (IoT) devices to proxy services...
And that's why I will never buy any IoT devices that require an internet connection to work. Only IoT devices in my house are those that connect to my own server and never see the light of the internet.