Is Your IP Hacked? GreyNoise Launches Free IP Check to Detect Botnet Activity
GreyNoise Labs has unveiled GreyNoise IP Check, an online service that allows users to determine whether their IP address has been observed participating in suspicious scanning activity linked to botnets or residential proxy networks. The initiative is designed to help homeowners understand whether their devices are being quietly exploited for malicious purposes.
GreyNoise, which monitors large-scale internet activity through its own sensor network, reports a sharp rise in residential proxy networks over the past year. Home connections are increasingly being transformed into relay nodes for other people’s traffic. In some cases, users knowingly install bandwidth-sharing applications in exchange for small payouts; far more often, however, malicious software and browser extensions infiltrate devices silently, enrolling them into someone else’s infrastructure without the owner’s knowledge.
There are many ways to identify botnet involvement — from reviewing logs and configuration files to analyzing network traffic and uncovering anomalous behavior. The new service makes the process far less labor-intensive, requiring only an IP address and no modification of local equipment.
When users query GreyNoise IP Check, they receive one of three possible designations. “Clean” indicates that no suspicious scanning activity has been observed from that address. “Malicious/Suspicious” signals that the IP has been detected performing scans, and that devices on the local network merit closer inspection. “Common Business Service” denotes that the address belongs to a VPN provider, corporate network, or cloud platform — environments where active scanning of external ports and addresses is often performed by legitimate monitoring and security tools, and therefore does not necessarily suggest compromise.
If any activity is detected, the service provides a 90-day timeline. This historical view helps correlate the onset of suspicious scans with the installation of a particular application — including bandwidth-sharing clients or dubious software — making it easier to pinpoint and eliminate the source of the issue.
For technical users, GreyNoise additionally offers a JSON interface with no authentication requirements and no request limits. Data can be retrieved via curl and integrated into custom scripts or monitoring systems.
If an address is flagged as “Malicious/Suspicious,” a full malware inspection across all devices on the network is strongly advised, with particular attention to routers and smart appliances such as set-top boxes. Users are also encouraged to install the latest firmware, change any default administrative credentials, and disable remote access if it is not in use.
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