Law enforcement agencies including Europol dismantled the SocksEscort malicious proxy network and froze $3.5 million in cryptocurrency assets.

Techub News reported, according to Decrypt, that Europol, the U.S. Department of Justice, and other agencies jointly dismantled a malicious proxy service network named "SocksEscort" and froze $3.5 million in cryptocurrency related to the case. The network allegedly compromised over 369,000 routers and IoT devices across 163 countries worldwide, providing users with more than 35,000 proxies in recent years.

Europol stated that 34 domain names and 23 servers across 7 countries were seized during the operation. The payment platforms associated with the service are estimated to have received over $5.7 million in cryptocurrency. The investigation, which began in June 2025, found that the infected devices were primarily used to facilitate criminal activities such as ransomware and DDoS attacks.