White House Staffers’ Internet Addresses Available for Rent to Anyone
A disturbing discovery has been made about the White House’s cybersecurity practices. A security firm, Layer3 Intel, detected multiple instances of a residential proxy service, Infatica, being used by staff members to rent out their internet addresses to others. This means that anyone can pay a few dollars and access the White House network through these proxy services.
The problem lies in the fact that these proxy services are often integrated into “free” mobile and desktop applications, making it easy for users to unwittingly allow strangers to access sensitive areas of the network. The founder of Infatica, Vladimir Fomenko, is a Russian national whose hosting firm was involved in compromising election systems in 2016.
Infatica is just one example of a residential proxy service, which allows customers to rent someone else’s internet address to anonymize their web traffic or spoof their location. These services are often based in countries like China and Russia, where cybersecurity standards may be laxer than in the West. From a website’s perspective, the traffic from a proxy network user appears to originate from the rented IP address, not from the proxy service customer.
Layer3 Intel detected 28 separate residential proxy services that were able to exit through the White House network. This is public access, according to Layer3 Intel, and anyone can obtain it by signing up for a public residential proxy service and paying a few dollars. The security firm stumbled upon this issue while requesting global rotating access through these services.
Residential proxy services have become a major source of unwanted and often malicious traffic, including account takeover and cybercrime activity, advertising fraud, and mass content scraping for AI projects. They can also introduce serious security risks, as seen in the recent cases where cybercriminals exploited vulnerabilities in these services to probe local networks for vulnerable systems.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this issue. However, it’s clear that residential proxy services pose a significant threat to cybersecurity, particularly when used by government agencies and corporations. As Synthient Founder Ben Brundage noted, “Some of these resellers sell bandwidth for as low as 60 cents a Gigabyte, meaning for less than a dollar you can gain access into some of the most confidential and trusted networks.”
This discovery highlights the need for organizations to be vigilant in monitoring their network activity and implementing robust cybersecurity measures to prevent unauthorized access. It also underscores the importance of understanding the risks associated with residential proxy services and taking steps to mitigate them.
As a takeaway, users should be aware that “free” mobile and desktop applications may contain embedded software development kits (SDKs) provided by residential proxy networks, which can compromise their device’s security. Additionally, organizations should educate their employees about the dangers of using residential proxy services and implement strict cybersecurity protocols to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive areas of the network.
Source: Krebs on Security — 2026-11-05