It is common knowledge that cyber attacks are increasing by the day. And they are getting more damaging too. As per Check Point Research’s report, an organization faced 925 cyberattacks per week globally.
Thankfully, businesses have realized the need to implement strong cyber security practices to protect themselves from such attacks. One such technique that businesses can use to mitigate cyber attacks is using proxy servers for cyber security purposes.
What Are Proxy Servers?
A proxy server is an intermediary server, either virtual or real, through which the internet traffic from your computer or webserver is routed. The request is sent to the intended website by the proxy server. In a nutshell, a proxy server is a middleman in your internet connection.
There are various use cases of a proxy server. It can be used for security, bandwidth savings, privacy, accessing restricted content, and other purposes.
Suppose you want to view the content available on Netflix USA from India. But, the content is unavailable due to the geographical limitations set by Netflix. In such cases, you can use free proxy servers to view the restricted content. Your request will first be sent to a proxy server list in the USA and then sent to Netflix servers.
The Netflix servers will see the incoming request from a location in the USA. Thus, it will grant permission to view the content.
The use of free proxy servers goes beyond viewing restricted content online. They can be used for greater purposes like providing cyber security to businesses.
How Do Proxy List Servers Help Enhance Cyber Security?
Proxy list servers work on the seventh layer or the application layer of the OSI model in cyber security. They act as a buffer between the network requests sent and received by an organization. Businesses can make use of the free proxies list for their cyber security purposes. The free proxy list contains proxy servers from all over the world, is secure, and provides anonymity.
Here is a look at the five major ways in which free list proxy can help with cyber security.
- Email Phishing Protection
Email phishing is a cybercrime where cybercriminals impersonate a business through emails. Email phishing attacks have been on the rise in recent years. They are causing great harm to organizations across the globe. You can check out some common examples of phishing emails.
To prevent falling victim to such attacks, businesses can use the free proxy list from Proxyscape. As this list is consistently updated, the most effective free proxy servers on the list can scrape emails to check and identify harmful links or content. If such content is found, they block the emails from reaching the user’s inbox. Businesses can make use of free data center proxies as they provide speed, high performance, and long uptimes.
- Identity Theft Protection
Cybercriminals can carry out identity thefts to cause financial losses to businesses. For example, they can create counterfeit products and even package them using the registered trademarks of the company. The products are then sold through e-commerce websites in different geographical locations. As per Washington Post’s research, third-world countries are the preferred destination for selling such products. This can result in a loss of millions and billions of dollars if left unnoticed.
To counter this, businesses can take the help of free proxy servers. Businesses can easily track listings of such products by using a vast pool of proxy servers from particular locations. They can, then, take the necessary actions to stop the sale of counterfeit items.
- DDoS Protection
DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service. It is a cyber-attack method wherein cybercriminals flood the company’s servers with a large number of simultaneous requests (more than the server can handle). This can lead to the website crashing and the operations coming to a halt.
Businesses can use a content delivery network (CDN) of proxy servers distributed across various locations. The proxies will have access to the website data and content. When any user sends an access request, they will get connected to the nearest proxy server.
The data will be downloaded from that server proxy instead of the main server. This will help thwart DDoS attacks as the requests can be handled by multiple servers stored at different locations.
- Malicious Website Protection
Another way free proxy lists can help with cyber security is by providing protection against malicious websites. Nowadays, cybercriminals create duplicate, genuine-looking websites having similar URLs to the legit versions. But, these websites contain malicious scripts and data that can cause harm to your organization.
Proxy list servers intercept users’ web requests, download the website content on their behalf, and evaluate the safety before returning it to the user. If the proxy detects the content as malicious, it blocks and disconnects the connection. This helps safeguard against potential cyber-attacks.
- Limit User Access Control
One of the major reasons for cyberattacks is your employees visiting malicious websites, intentionally or unintentionally. This can lead to malware and ransomware attacks, which can cause tangible and intangible losses to the business.
Proxy servers can help prevent such attacks as they can be used to block access to unsecured websites. The proxies can analyze the user request and allow the connection to go through only if the website is secure and reliable. Moreover, proxies can also be used to block employee access to websites that can hamper the employee’s productivity.
- User-Activity Logs
With a proxy server in place, all the network traffic flows through it. The proxy logs contain valuable data that can be used to identify suspicious activity. Some valuable data that can be extracted from the logs include the URL, IP address, network port, browser, and the system used to access the internet.
Analyzing the logs can help identify the exact instance that caused a breach and prove to be a great resource for threat hunting.
Parting Thoughts
Undoubtedly, proxy servers provide an additional layer of protection against cyber attacks. It protects enterprises against a myriad of cyber attacks and proves to be a powerful weapon in the fight against them. Additionally, proxies are available for free, helping organizations strengthen their cybersecurity measures with zero spending!