If you like hero stories, you will understand how important
proxies are. Think about them like your silent defender in the digital space.
Allow us to use an analogy to explain what we mean. The digital space is like a
very busy street. The amount of activity at any given time is enormous. There
is a lot of traffic and people going about their daily activities.
Do you know that, on average, we produce about 2.5
quintillion bytes of data every single day? But within the streets are some
not-so-nice people. These nefarious individuals troll the streets looking for
targets. They will exploit any areas of vulnerability to ply their trade.
Now, as an internet user, you contribute to the traffic. Without
safeguards in place, cybercriminals will attack. That is why you need a
defender in the form of an IP proxy server.
Our article explores IP proxies' role in business security and
productivity. But first, let’s understand what proxies are.
IP Proxies: What Are They?
An IP proxy is a software system that acts as a middleman or
gateway between you and remote servers. When you send a search request, it goes
straight to the receiving server. But, with a proxy, your request goes to the
proxy. The proxy then processes the requests then sends them to the remote
server.
At this point, several things happen, including:-
- Hiding, masking, or distorting your IP address. The action ensures the remote server cannot identify your exact location. This ensures anonymity and privacy while online.
- Proxies encrypt internet traffic.
- Sieving of internet traffic to remove any malware or malicious code.
- Balancing of internet traffic. This is quite critical for avoiding downtimes if you experience peak traffic times.
- Proxies allow for monitoring of internet activity. It provides an effective way of ensuring internet users do not expose the company to risk.
- Data caching saves on bandwidth, thus, faster internet speeds.
ISP vs. Residential Proxies
When shopping for a proxy, you will find many options offering
different benefits. ISP (Static residential proxies) are data center and
residential proxies hybrids. They get their IPs from an internet provider, but
the hosting is still in data center servers. You get a new IP with every
request from a pool of IP addresses. This makes them harder to detect. They are
also faster than the data center proxies.
A residential IP proxy allows you to tap
into millions of networks from all over the world. It gives users access to
rotating IP addresses from global user devices. Users enjoy a level of
geo-diversity that ISP proxies cannot provide. There is also the option of a
static residential proxy. Such mask your IP behind one residential IP address.
Residential IP proxies get their IP from ISP or local internet
registries. They route traffic through your phones or computers. It makes it
harder for remote servers to identify the proxy. The residential proxies are
ideal for data scraping without worrying about geo-blocking. You also get
better anonymity while online.
Let’s now see how they can help with business security and
productivity. You will better understand the bullet points we highlighted
above.
. Better Internet Security with Proxies
ISP proxies have several benefits with regard to cyber security.
- By masking your IP address, you enjoy online anonymity while browsing. No one, including cybercriminals, can track what you are doing.
- Web request encryption keeps your data safe from third-party eyes.
- Sieving internet traffic keeps your networks safe from malware.
- Email scraping, thanks to proxies, can help identify harmful content. You will understand why this is important in the next point on insider threats.
. Fight Insider Threats with Proxies
One of the biggest challenges to cybersecurity in organizations
is insider threats.
Take a look at the
following insider threat statistics.
- In the US, there are 2,500 internal breaches every single day.
- On a global scale, Insider threats affect 34% of businesses.
- Since 2020 there has been a 44% increase in such incidents.
- As of 2022, each Insider threat costs $15.38 million.
Now here is where it gets fascinating about insider threats. A
majority of the time, they are not intentional. A simple action of clicking on
a link by an employee can put the company at risk.
Remember our bullet point on proxies allowing for monitoring
employee internet activity? Well, that allows you to block any sites that could
expose the business to cyber threats.
Further, the proxy allows you to keep a log of the sites they
visit. It will help you know which employee misuses the internet for personal
reasons. Cyberloafing can have a considerable impact on productivity.
Faster Internet Speeds with Proxies
Low internet speeds can have a massive impact on productivity.
When there is a lot of traffic, the site may crash.
A residential IP proxy can be a fantastic resource for your
business. The proxy will:
- Compress the online traffic so that your network never experiences an overload
- Cache web pages and files to avoid many redirects with every search query
- Balance the traffic going into and out of your server
- Remove bandwidth-consuming elements like ads.
All these factors will contribute to faster internet speeds. ISP
proxies run on cloud servers. This makes them very fast, secure, and reliable.
Proxies Circumvent Geo-Blocking and Bans
Your teams need access to information to do their work well.
But, some sites will block access depending on your location. You may have
observed this with streaming service providers like Netflix. Other sites will
ban a user if there are many requests for information from an IP.
Your ISP or residential proxies help circumvent such blocks or
bans. With different IP addresses for each request, it appears like different
people are asking for information.
By hiding your IP, the remote server will not tell where the
request is coming from. With residential IP proxies, you get to choose your
location. So, you can be in Africa but appear like you are in the US. It
provides a brilliant way to access geo-restricted content.
Final Thoughts
Stay safe on the internet with ISP or residential proxies. We
have looked at what they are above and the benefits to the business. A proxy
provides online anonymity and security. You can also combat insider threats with
the right proxy. It becomes easy to track and even block the sites employees
visit.
Finally, you also get faster speeds and lower bandwidth consumption. Your teams will also get access to geo-restricted content. All these will impact the productivity of the teams.
