The sheer volume of cyberattacks and their effect on businesses is astounding. In just the third quarter of 2022, an estimated 108.9 million accounts were breached, a 70% increase from the first half of the year. One of the issues that IT professionals face when attempting to identify and prevent cyber criminals is discerning between malicious traffic and legitimate users, a hurdle further complicated by an increase in remote workers who need to access their business’s network from their home or other public networks.
Furthermore, bad actors are constantly developing and deploying new methods to gain access to networks and sensitive data, a trend that increased drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, a fifth of cyberattacks employed previously unknown malware or methods. This grew by 35% during the pandemic as cybercriminals took advantage of shifting protocols put in place by businesses to allow customers and employees to access networks and data remotely.
The effects of a successful cyberattack on a business are far-reaching, potentially affecting productivity, reputation, and the bottom line. As such, IT professionals need to be prepared for cyberattacks, both to stop as many attacks as possible before they occur and to limit damage when a network is breached. IP data is a powerful tool in the IT professional’s toolbelt that buoys their ability to achieve both of these objectives.
THE EFFECTS OF VPNs ON CYBERSECURITY
As mentioned, users are adopting the latest technologies to access networks and data, a trend that is being exploited by cybercriminals to gain illicit access to networks and user accounts. One key example of this is the increased usage of VPNs.
On the one hand, VPNs are becoming widely used across the globe, as businesses need a way to give remote employees access to their network, minimize the amount of information exposed to public Wi-Fi networks, and safeguard personal data. Private users are also rapidly adopting VPNs as a means to protect their privacy online and purchase digital content, which can be restricted in certain regions. One estimation projects the global VPN market to reach a value of $75 billion by 2027, up from $25 billion in 2019.
On the other hand, VPNs are also useful tools for fraudsters. VPNs help cybercriminals remain anonymous and obscure their actions online. This combined use of VPNs muddies the waters for IT professionals who need to differentiate between legitimate users and bad actors trying to breach networks and access sensitive data illegally. Without the correct insights, legitimate users can be flagged as malicious while cybercriminals slip past undetected.
HOW IP ADDRESS INTELLIGENCE CAN HELP FIGHT CYBERCRIME
Organizations need to find solutions to help them discern legitimate users employing a VPN from potential cybersecurity threats. Once these solutions have been established, protocols can be put into place to prevent future network breaches and gather further analytics to improve procedures continuously.
VPN and proxy indicators provide network security professionals with the ability to determine where online activity originates from. If traffic originates from a high-risk location or a VPN provider with attributes that are attractive to cybercriminals, IT professionals can prevent the user from accessing the network or flag the traffic for further investigation.
The effectiveness of this approach is reliant upon the accuracy of the available data being leveraged. Network security administrators need to be careful when selecting data providers to ensure all data is up-to-date and highly accurate; otherwise, they run the risk of blocking legitimate traffic to their network.
IP location data additionally adds value from a web application firewall (WAF) perspective. Network security administrators need visibility and control to manage traffic effectively from various locations. For example, for businesses with a significant remote workforce, IP location data can act as the first wall of defense for blocking illegitimate traffic to a network. If one such business knows no employees should access the network from a certain region, flagging traffic from that region allows administrators to flag and process the traffic based on their pre-established authentication rules.
With cybercriminals intent on utilizing emerging technologies to camouflage their nefarious intentions, businesses now, more than ever, need trusted partners to provide them with context-rich data to buoy their established security protocols by helping to identify potential threats and limit damage when breaches occur. Proxy and VPN intelligence empower network security professionals to identify and investigate suspicious traffic, identify threat trends, and bolster their security protocols to address the ever-changing cybercrime landscape.
