Managing Proxy use

Proxies and VPNs both serve as intermediaries in the communication between a user’s device and the internet, yet they operate in distinct ways and offer differing levels of privacy and security.

Many security applications ‘proxy’ Internet traffic, on behalf of users for example to protect users from harmful Internet content, Malware for example, also providing organisations with reports about user Internet activity or they can be used on behalf of web servers and services, CDN’s for example, which are used to provide scale to Internet servers and increase performance and security.

Anonymous proxies, are typically used to circumvent Internet access controls, in a similar way that VPN’s are, however they provide less security, as the offer the ability for a third party to access or monitor unencrypted traffic. They can be used to inject advertising or other content into the traffic stream.
They can also provide anonymity to upstream servers, and geolocation flexibility for users to access geo restricted content.

Blocking users access to unwanted and anonymous proxies is a key component in providing secure Internet access, preventing exfiltration of data and lowering the risk of cyber incidents.

Our products:

• We provide dynamic lists of IP address and domain data for deployment on firewalls, DNS servers and other infrastructure to block access to commercial VPN’s.
• We provide dynamic lists of IP address data to identify the source IP addresses of commercial VPN providers.
• We provide dynamic lists of data to detect and block other applications and services, block TOR, and proxy services, including anonymous proxies.
• We process firewall and other logs to detect commercial VPN, Tor, proxy and other anomalous use.
• We provide information to assist organisations adopt and implement clear policies with respect to blocking undesirable applications and technologies and assist their infrastructure in being more effective with the application of policy rules and data services.