Category: Cybersecurity

Today’s enterprise IT professionals are navigating a challenging cybersecurity environment. In many ways, the problem’s scope is stunning and alarming. For instance, ransomware attacks increased by 151 percent year-over-year in 2021, while phishing scams increased by 440 percent in a single month.

The escalating attacks come with a price. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023, the average cost of a data breach in 2023 was USD $4.45 million, a 2.3% increase from 2022’s cost of $4.35 million.

As a result, companies are increasing their cybersecurity investment, fortifying their defensive postures to avoid the financial expense, reputational damage, and productivity loss that inevitably follows a cybersecurity incident.

In the process, cybersecurity leaders and organizational decision-makers face difficult decisions as they allocate resources, invest in new solutions, and support their personnel. This is especially challenging as threat actors display remarkable agility, exploiting novel vulnerabilities and harnessing the latest technologies to wreak havoc on a company’s digital infrastructure.

However, by evaluating the latest technology trends, companies can get ahead of the next threats.

New Technologies Introduce New Threats

New technologies invite threat actors to invoke fresh tactics when launching ransomware attacks, infiltrating company networks, or illegally occupying consumer accounts. In a pandemic-stricken environment, many are leveraging camouflage techniques that allow them to operate anonymously from anywhere in the world.

Most prominently, virtual private networks (VPNs), proxy servers, queue networks, and domain name systems (DNSs) allow threat actors to operate with nearly total anonymity.

At the same time, many organizations have made VPNs, encrypted connections over the internet from a device to a network–through a single IP address, available to the employees, providing expanded access to company IT from anywhere in the world. Collectively, companies deploy VPNs for several reasons, including:

• Ensuring general security, such as avoiding identity theft
• Minimizing privacy concerns, such as securing personal data
• Mitigating information exposure from public WiFi
• Accommodating job-specific requirements

Meanwhile, more than half of VPN users rely on the technology to access region-restricted content from streaming services and digital platforms. Unfortunately, many users are downloading free VPN software to access this region-restricted content, and they’ve unknowingly had their residential IPs hijacked by these VPN providers.

When consumers download and sign up for a free commercial VPN, many agree to give the VPN provider the right to use their IP address in the entire proxy pool for routing purposes. While this clause is often hidden in the Terms of Service, it can have significant implications for cybersecurity.

Threat actors have found proxies to be an effective way to masquerade their malicious activity. Companies can’t prevent VPN users from accessing the internet, but this practice increases the risk of labeling customers or employees as threat actors while failing to detect or discover the root of cybercrime.

Incorporating IP Data for Protection

Simply put, it’s evident that companies need to develop the capacity to separate threat actors from genuine users. The ability to identify threat actors operating through a proxy enables companies to flag potential criminal activities, set protocols for handling this type of “non-human” traffic, and review post-action analytics.

By incorporating proxy and VPN data on the front-end of online security measures, companies can automatically flag IP addresses as suspicious and reject or block the incoming IP from connecting to their service, website, or network. In addition, proxy data can trigger variable fraud alerts that enable companies to differentiate authentic traffic from fraudulent activity more effectively.

Most importantly, success is predicated on data quality. Information reliability can vary significantly among data sources, but the most accurate proxy data providers ensure that this information is constantly updated and originates from excellent sources. The cybersecurity implications are far-reaching, including:

• Government agencies can use IP-based VPN data to filter and identify safe VPNs.
• Financial services and eCommerce platforms can incorporate proxy and VPN data to implement smart rules to verify consumer IP addresses automatically.
• Managed security service providers can use proxy and VPN data as a foundational, front-line layer of fraud prevention and security enhancement.

To thrive in a shifting cybersecurity landscape, companies must continually equip themselves with the data and tools to protect their digital assets. Developing the capacity to analyze and respond to high-quality proxy and VPN data strips threat actors of their anonymity, making it one cybersecurity strategy that companies can’t ignore in the year ahead.

To get more information about using IP data to solve cybersecurity challenges for your organization, access our guide, “The Need for Proxy/VPN Data in Today’s Heightened Cybersecurity State” here.

According to research firm Cybersecurity Ventures, the cost of global cybercrime will reach $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from the $3 trillion USD that it was in 2015.

Today’s enterprise IT professionals are clearly on the front lines of a very intense battle, where the losses span monetary, reputational, productivity and IP theft, to mention only a few.

In today’s world, new technologies usher in new tactics used by criminals. They can launch ransom attacks, take over networks, and illegally infiltrate consumer accounts through diverse devices from anywhere in the world. 

By leveraging camouflage techniques, they can do so anonymously. Tools such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), proxy servers, queue networks, and Domain Name Systems (DNSs) allow them to hide their true identities and locations.

The reliance of cyber criminals on these tactics can be key to deciphering crime networks and their activities if businesses take the right approach.

Separate the Bad Guys from the Good Guys

A growing amount of internet traffic is being masked through proxies. For example, online users wanting to surf the web anonymously often use proxies that can provide them with a means to hide their IP address from the rest of the world.

By connecting to the internet through proxies, a device’s IP address will not be shown but rather the IP of the proxy server. Whether used intentionally or unintentionally, proxies can significantly throw off a company’s online initiatives.

The expanded availability of low-cost, IP-redirect options that run through geographically distributed hosting facilities have caused a proliferation of proxies. These include anonymizers, VPNs, and Tor services to name a few.

Cyber criminals, in particular, have found the use of proxies to be effective. But, it’s important to remember that not all proxies have malicious intent. VPNs are widely used by legitimate users for diverse purposes and are a popular choice for enhancing security and privacy. Recent data indicates approximately 26 percent of global online users access the internet using a VPN or proxy server.

As a result, stopping all VPN users is not practical. It increases the danger that real customers or employees are mistakenly labeled as crooks. If that is not enough, this method fails to discover the root of cybercrime. In order to mitigate risks and protect real users, companies must find the means to separate the bad guys from the good guys― and one of the tools for accomplishing this is the incorporation of IP-based VPN and proxy data into your platforms and technologies.

Data Accuracy Is Imperative for Fighting Cyber Crimes

By connecting to the internet through proxies, the IP address of the criminal’s device will not be shown accurately, but rather the IP of the proxy server.

The ability to identify if an online user is connected through a proxy and what type of proxy it is enables companies to flag potential criminal activities and set protocols for handling this type of “non-human” traffic differently.

Understanding the type of proxy a visitor is connecting to the internet with, such as anonymous, transparent, corporate, public, education or AOL, can trigger fraud alerts. Responses to the type of proxy can vary depending on what type of proxy it is―for example, an anonymous proxy may warrant a higher fraud score than a corporate one. By identifying connections that obscure the end-user location or those that seek to portray a connection from an “acceptable” city or country can now be easily identified and categorized.

Of course, success depends on data quality. Reliability of information can vary significantly among data sources. But the most accurate proxy data providers not only ensure that information is constantly updated on a daily basis, but that information also originates from excellent sources.

The Advantage of Other IP-Based Data

The analysis of criminal activity can go far beyond proxies. Initially, this may include an assessment of the connection type. For example, a hosting center can be a tool for traffic, not a source. Then traffic originating from it can be examined alongside existing records, such as information stored in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database. The same goes for proxy, VPN and queue servers. By evaluating the type of proxy used against the highest quality proxy data, companies can start distinguishing between a reliable VPN and a mechanism that is more suited to suspicious activity.

Beyond connection features, IP geolocation allows companies to run comparisons. For example, in retail, this includes the implementation of smart rules where IP location is automatically checked when there are log-ins from high-risk locations. Alternatively, companies can secure internal networks by tracking speed patterns and identifying suspicious trends, such as people jumping between locations at illogical speed or in illogical order.

After analysis, companies can choose their preferred mode of action. Any suspicious activity that poses a low threat can be flagged for a form of authentication, such as sending an email or SMS that allows the user to confirm their identities. In the meantime, serious threats can be blocked immediately to prevent damage. Alongside reducing false positives, this approach shows consumers that companies are committed to cybercrime prevention.

In order to thrive in the digital world, companies must equip themselves with tools that identify and exploit crooks and cyber criminals to strip them of their anonymity without jeopardizing real users―and this can be accomplished effectively and seamlessly through proxy data and other IP-intelligence factors.