The IP address is one of the critical digital breadcrumbs that connects anything connected to the Internet. While it may not be a high priority item in many compliance circles, high risk IP addresses is one of the essential elements of any modern cybersecurity and fraud prevention solution.
What is the safety of IP address?
As more and more things are becoming connected to the internet, from refrigerators to home security cameras, there’s growing risk that these devices won’t be designed with cybersecurity as a top priority. As a result, some of these devices could be hacked to expose users’ personal information and even steal money.
In addition to traditional fraud indicators like location and device characteristics, there are a variety of ways in which a specific IP address can be confirmed as suspicious. These include being involved in launching denial of service attacks, dropping malware, hosting phishing websites and criminally illegal or obscene material.
Using a combination of automated threat intelligence feeds and a machine learning model, an IP’s risk score can be assessed and determined to have a high, medium or low risk. A high risk score means that the IP has been involved in multiple fraudulent transactions or other activities that indicate an increased chance of committing fraud.
The minFraud network also provides a list of high risk IP addresses, which can be accessed here. These are IP addresses that have been associated with known cybercriminals and/or nation state actors and should be blocked. These lists can contain proxy and VPN servers that have been exploited to hide the real origin of an Internet connection.
