Techub News reports that, according to Decrypt, Europol and the U.S. Department of Justice jointly dismantled a malicious proxy service network called "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 during the operation, 34 domain names and 23 servers across seven countries were seized, and the payment platforms associated with the service are estimated to have received over $5.7 million in cryptocurrency. The investigation began in June 2025 and found that the infected devices were mainly used to facilitate criminal activities such as ransomware and DDoS attacks.