Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
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Title: Google is suing the BadBox 2.0 botnet group

Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2025 18:58:12 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/google...

Google has filed a lawsuit against the operators of a what is believed to be
the largest smart TV botnet in the world ΓÇö BadBox 2.0.

The company said in its complaint that this China-based botnet had
compromised more than 10 million uncertified devices ΓÇö including TV
streaming boxes, tablets and projectors. Google said that cybercriminals pre-
installed malware or used malicious apps to download malware on hardware that
was running open-source Android software. These compromised devices were then
used to conduct "large-scale ad fraud and other digital crimes." In addition
to the lawsuit, which is an injunction against the botnet's operators as well
as unspecified damages, Google said it has updated Google Play Protect to
automatically block known apps associated with BadBox 2.0.

The FBI is also working to dismantle BadBox 2.0, with an alert about the
operation issued last month. The original BadBox botnet campaign, which also
primarily infiltrated Android operating systems, was identified in 2023 and
disrupted in 2024.

Google has been a target for this type of cybercriminal activity before. In
2021, it disrupted Glupteba, which at the time was one of the largest botnets
with about one million Windows PCs impacted.

Read the full complaint below:

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/google...
group-185812719.html?src=rss

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