That cheap streaming box promising free movies, live sports and premium channels may come with a hidden cost you never agreed to pay.Security researchers are warning about a sprawling Android-based botnet called Popa.It has reportedly forced millions of consumer TV boxes to relay internet traffic tied to ad fraud, account takeovers and mass data scraping.The concern goes beyond one shady app or one off-brand gadget.
It points to a bigger problem sitting in living rooms across the country.Your home internet connection can be quietly used by strangers.
In other words, that box connected to your TV may be doing more than streaming shows and movies.THE TRICK TO SMOOTHER STREAMING AT HOME AND ON THE ROADA cheap streaming box promising free TV can secretly route stranger traffic through your home internet.(Phynart Studio/Getty Images)Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGLOBAL SCAM CRACKDOWN LEADS TO 276 ARRESTSPopa is tied to the wider Vo1d and BADBOX-style ecosystem of compromised Android-based streaming devices.
These are often unofficial TV boxes sold online under countless names.Many promise access to paid movies, sports or channels for a one-time price.
That should be your first warning sign.KrebsOnSecurity reports that Popa works less like a traditional botnet built for quick attacks and more like a persistent tunneling system.It can register a device, keep encrypted connections open and route traffic through that device when needed.So what does that mean at home? Someone else's internet traffic can appear to come from your house.A residential proxy uses a regular home internet address to send traffic.
To a website, that traffic can look like it came from an ordinary household instead of a suspicious server farm.That makes these networks valuable for people trying to hide mass scraping, fake ad clicks, account attacks or other shady activity.It also creates a scary problem for the person who owns the Wi-Fi.Your IP address could show up as the source, even thoug...