Google collaborates with giants such as Cloudflare to deal a heavy blow to IPIDEA, the world's largest residential agency network Google has taken direct action and disrupted IPIDEA, the world's largest residential agency network - this is not just a small fuss, but a real blow to a major artery of black industry. Simply put, how is IPIDEA played? They secretly embed various apps (mobile phones, computers, and even televisions) through SDKs, and users unknowingly turn their own devices into proxy nodes as soon as they install them. Millions of ordinary people's broadband IPs around the world are used to sell to bad people. So what? More than 550 threat groups rely on this network to engage in APT espionage, advertising brushing, e-commerce brushing, and traffic cheating, all of which are dirty jobs that bypass risk control. Google's three pronged action this time: 1. Legal and technical double kill: sue for shutting down domain names that control devices and proxy traffic; Transfer the technical intelligence of IPIDEA SDK to law enforcement agencies and partners; The Android system automatically detects, warns, and removes malicious apps with this SDK through Google Play Protect. 2. Unprecedented scale: directly affecting over 600 malicious apps and more than 3000 associated files; The global proxy pool has lost millions of IPs (Google says "millions", with reports suggesting that 9 million Android devices have been liberated); More than a dozen affiliated brands, including 360Proxy and 922Proxy, have been fully launched. 3. Direct market collapse: The supply of residential IP has plummeted, agency prices have doubled, and quality has also declined. Those black and gray industries that rely on dynamic residential IP for their livelihood (brushing orders, wool harvesting, account maintenance, and crawling around risk control) are instantly choked. This matter should have two meanings. Firstly, it appears to be a major cybersecurity cleanup, cutting off the channels for bad actors' resources; But from a deeper perspective, Google's motivation for maintaining its own anti fraud advertising system is also very clear - residential agents are a big killer for brushing ads and cheating traffic. If this is cut off, Google's advertising ecosystem will be much cleaner. Secondly, this exposes the essence of residential agents: disguising themselves as home broadband IP and bypassing all risk controls. Previously, people thought that residential IPs were the cleanest, but now upon closer inspection, many of them are hijacked devices belonging to ordinary people. By downloading a free app and playing a small game, users contribute their internet speed and privacy to the black industry. Long term impact? Black and gray production will experience short-term pain, making it difficult to find alternatives, with high prices and poor stability; But they will always make a comeback. What about ordinary people? Check your mobile app more often, don't install "free tools", "accelerators", "VPNs" from unknown sources, and don't casually click on things like "sharing bandwidth to earn pocket money". The old man has always said that if the underlying resources of the Internet are abused, something will happen sooner or later. Google's move this time is a good thing, but it also reminds everyone that your device may have been used as a ladder for others for a long time. Have you ever used a residential agent? Or have you recently noticed an inexplicable increase in mobile data usage? Tell me about your experience in the comment section. The old man is curious about how many people's "financial paths" have been cut off by this blow. Barbarian Vision Network Security IPIDEA Residential Agent Google Crackdown