FBI public service announcement

[Rockstar]

How to Identify and Remove VPN Applications That Contain 911 S5 Back Doors

https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cybe...1-s5-backdoors

The FBI, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Department of Commerce's Office of Export Enforcement have published a public service announcement (the “PSA”) for individuals and businesses to better understand and guard against the 911 S5 residential proxy service and botnet. The PSA is available at ic3.gov/Media/Y2024/PSA240529.

As explained in the PSA, 911 S5 began operating in May 2014 and was taken offline by the administrator in July 2022 before reconstituting as Cloudrouter in October 2023. 911 S5 was likely the largest residential proxy service and botnet with over 19 million compromised IP addresses in over 190 countries and confirmed victim losses in the billions of dollars.

Free, illegitimate VPN applications that were created to connect to the 911 S5 service are: MaskVPN, DewVPN, PaladinVPN, ProxyGate, ShieldVPN, and ShineVPN.

Unaware of the proxy backdoor, once users downloaded these VPN applications, they unknowingly became a victim of the 911 S5 botnet. The proxy backdoor enabled 911 S5 users to re-route their devices through victims’ devices, allowing criminals to carry out crimes such as bomb threats, financial fraud, identity theft, child exploitation, and initial access brokering. By using a proxy backdoor, criminals made nefarious activity appear as though it was coming from the victims’ devices.

The below information is intended to help identify and remove 911 S5’s VPN applications from devices or machines.

Before electing to use this information, users may want to consult with legal counsel and cybersecurity professionals, potentially including an incident response firm if they deem necessary, to explore all options and assist with any remediation efforts to avoid further harm by malicious software applications or botnets. The FBI makes no warranties or representations regarding the efficacy of this information.