There are warning signs that your home network may have been compromised, such as unusual traffic patterns and slow system performance, but now there is a simple tool to help you determine if your router or connected devices are being used to carry out malicious activity. IP Check, from threat monitoring company GreyNoise, will alert you if your IP address has been observed scanning the Internet as part of a botnet or residential proxy network.
As GreyNoise points out, residential IP address compromise is often not obvious to the user because you can still conduct business as usual, such as streaming, email, and web browsing. During this time, however, bad actors route malicious activity through your personal IP address and can potentially exploit your network for everything from account takeover to malware distribution.
Check your IP address for suspicious activity
To use IP Check, simply open the tool in a browser window and you will get one of several results. If your IP address is clean, this means that your network has not been detected scanning the Internet (and does not belong to any known commercial service infrastructure).
Credit: Emily Long
Your IP address may also be reported as being in the GreyNoise database, which is not a sign of compromise. This is likely because you’re using a VPN, corporate network, or cloud provider, and the tool can distinguish between an IP address that belongs to a data center and one that’s exploited. (Note that Apple users browsing in Safari with Private Relay enabled will likely see “Possible spoofed traffic detected,” which is also not necessarily cause for alarm. Try checking your real IP address in another browser like Chrome or Firefox to confirm.)
What do you think of it so far?
Credit: Emily Long
If your IP East identified as malicious or suspicious, you should investigate further. If you open the Observed Scanner Activity section, you can see when the first and last instance of the scanning behavior occurred and what types were detected as well as the next actionable steps.
As BleepingComputer notes, you can get started with detecting malicious activity by examining device logs, network traffic, and activity patterns, but checking your IP address is the easiest place to start.
