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# RSOCKS proxy botnet disruption

June 2022, Criminal hosting and proxies
Led by [Federal Bureau of Investigation](https://takedownindex.org/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation)

Extended pass entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

What was taken down?

Backend infrastructure mapped via undercover technical purchases; disruption of the proxy-selling service followed.

[See what happened](#what-happened)

What happened to the people?

No individual outcomes are recorded against this entry.
Group accounted for: Not established

[See people and accountability](#people)

Did it stay down?

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

[See what happened afterward](#afterward)

## What happened

FBI, working with USAO Southern District of California and DOJ CCIPS, disrupted a malicious residential-proxy botnet operators claimed encompassed millions of hacked devices, after undercover purchases mapped its backend infrastructure.

**Date:** June 1 to June 16, 2022

**Target:** RSOCKS, residential proxy botnet

**Activity:** Criminal hosting and proxies

**Operational lead:** FBI

**Partners**

USAO-SDCA[[1]](#source-1)

- [United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California](https://takedownindex.org/organizations/united-states-attorney-s-office-for-the-southern-district-of-california), prosecuting

**Jurisdiction:** Not established

**Outcome:** Backend infrastructure mapped via undercover technical purchases; disruption of the proxy-selling service followed.

**Status:** Completed

**Legal mechanism:** Federal search-warrant process (S.D. Cal.), publicly unsealed.

**Group accounted for:** Not established

## People and accountability

No individual is named against this entry in the cited record. That is a gap in what has been published rather than a finding that nobody was involved.

Group accounted for: Not established

The cited record does not say how large the group was or whether everyone involved has been identified.

[See the organizations and roles behind this action](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/rsocks-proxy-botnet-disruption/organizations)

## What happened afterward

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

## Sources

Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.

### Official sources

1.
[RSOCKS residential proxy botnet dismantled](https://takedownindex.org/sources/us-doj-usao-sdca-rsocks-residential-proxy-botnet-dismantled)

US DOJ / USAO SDCA, June 16, 2022, Source grade P1

Establishes the FBI's undercover mapping and disruption of RSOCKS proxy infrastructure.

No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

Coverage note. Added from deep-research aggregation pass. Not independently re-verified source-by-source to the same standard as the original 38-incident core; source\_quality capped at S2/P2 pending a dedicated verification pass.

Research context

## How this entry was checked

This entry came from a broader aggregation pass and has not been independently verified source by source. Its sources are graded no higher than P2 or S2, and most carry no address yet. Treat the figures as a research lead rather than a settled record.

Source review: Extended pass, not yet verified

Sources cited: 1

Research cutoff: August 20, 2026

Last reviewed August 21, 2026

See also

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