
Americans may be unwittingly giving hackers an easy path to access their houses. Cybersecurity experts, including cybercrime analysts at the FBI, are warning about residential proxy networks that can be found on many off-brand electronics. These networks often allow hackers to hide in plain sight.
What are residential proxy networks?
They are systems of software “designed to route other people’s internet traffic through a user’s device,” said Cyber Magazine. The networks operate largely like “forged return addresses on envelopes — someone else’s internet traffic is rerouted through your connection,” officials with Comcast’s Threat Research Lab said to Cyber. As the networks engage with users, they “quietly launder illegitimate activity” while making it appear that “your device is the initiator of that traffic.”
Residential proxy networks can make their way onto a variety of home devices, as “TV streaming devices, digital picture frames, smartphones, tablets and routers are used to route traffic,” according to the FBI. Many people who own such devices “do not realize their internet connection could be used by someone else without their permission.” The devices can sometimes gain internet access when the “owner of the device provides consent” unintentionally; other times, the owner “does not provide consent and is unaware their IP address is being used.”
Some of these devices “ship with residential proxy software preinstalled on them,” which can “happen with certain low-cost video-streaming systems,” said The Wall Street Journal. In other cases, people might “download the code to their smartphones” without realizing it. And since the networks make it appear like illegal activity is coming from an innocent person’s home, there is a “chance that law enforcement could come knocking at your door.”
How can people protect themselves?
The FBI provided a list of tips to help people stay safe, urging Americans to “avoid TV streaming devices that claim to provide free sports, TV shows and movies,” said the agency, as these “may contain malware or backdoors that hijack your internet network and can lead to identity theft.” The agency also recommended people be wary of downloading free VPNs and clicking on pop-ups, which can “initiate malware installation on your device.”
In the midst of these continued cyberattacks, some ordinary Americans are fighting back. Benjamin Brundage, a senior at the Rochester Institute of Technology, began an investigation in 2025 as a “growing network of hacked devices was launching the biggest cyberattacks ever seen on the internet” via a Chinese company called Ipidea, said the Journal. Using cat memes to “lighten the mood” while speaking to hackers, Brundage was able to find out significant information about the attackers, and law enforcement eventually “took action against the network.”
Brundage “identified 11 of the largest residential proxy companies, including Ipidea, that were vulnerable” to hackers, said the Journal. Other companies also assisted law enforcement in the investigation. Google “took legal action” against Ipidea to “take down domains used to control devices and proxy traffic through them,” the company said in a press release. While there are still “significant challenges for network defenders to detect and block malicious activities,” officials believe the action taken against Ipidea has reduced the “available pool of devices for the proxy operators by millions.”
Some devices even have these networks preinstalled on them


