Proxy services can be used in a legitimate manner for several business purposes - such as price comparisons or sales intelligence - but they are massively abused for hiding cybercrime activity because they make it difficult to trace malicious traffic to its original source. And a great many of these “proxy” networks are marketed primarily to cybercriminals seeking to anonymize their traffic by routing it through an infected PC, router or mobile device. Malware-based anonymity networks are a major source of unwanted and malicious web traffic directed at online retailers, Internet service providers (ISPs), social networks, email providers and financial institutions. “The malware has been used to create residential proxy services to shroud malicious activity such as password spraying, web-traffic proxying and ad fraud,” the Lumen researchers wrote. In a report released July 12, researchers at Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs called the AVrecon botnet “one of the largest botnets targeting small-office/home-office (SOHO) routers seen in recent history,” and a crime machine that has largely evaded public attention since first being spotted in mid-2021. officials say has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade. In a speech covered by the Financial Times in 2021, Sachkov railed against the likes of Russian hacker Maksim Yakubets, the accused head of a hacking group called Evil Corp.

Prior to his arrest in 2021, Sachkov publicly chastised the Kremlin for turning a blind eye to the epidemic of ransomware attacks coming from Russia. As a result, we might never know the pretext for his conviction.”

“All the materials of the case are kept classified, and all hearings were held in complete secrecy with no public scrutiny. “Ultimately, Ilya has been denied a chance for an impartial trial,” reads a blog post on the company’s site. In a statement, Group-IB said that during their founder’s detainment, he was denied the right to communicate - no calls, no letters - with the outside world for the first few months, and was deprived of any visits from family and friends. Group-IB relocated its headquarters to Singapore several years ago, although it did not fully exit the Russian market until April 2023. After a three-week “trial” that was closed to the public, Sachkov was convicted of treason and sentenced to 14 years in prison. In September 2021, the Kremlin issued treason charges against Sachkov, although it has refused to disclose any details about the allegations. In 2003, Sachkov founded Group-IB, a cybersecurity and digital forensics company that quickly earned a reputation for exposing and disrupting large-scale cybercrime operations, including quite a few that were based in Russia and stealing from Russian companies and citizens.

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