Understanding Proxy Detection API
As the number of people using proxy servers or VPN connections to obscure their identities increases, more businesses are turning to front-end security measures to identify suspicious activity, flag it as a possible threat, and set protocols for handling this type of connection differently. This is especially true for e-commerce sites, where customers connecting via a VPN or Understanding Proxy Detection API can represent a significant fraud risk.
Whether it’s to reduce fraud on your e-commerce site or prevent users from signing up for an account because they’re attempting to use a proxied device, this is a great way to improve the overall user experience and keep your customers safe.
Understanding Proxy Detection API: Features & Benefits
A good Proxy Detection API can provide real-time lookups that detect proxies, VPN connections, and Tor exit nodes, as well as geo-location, connection type, and ISP. With this data, you can enrich any IP address with risk scores, which can then trigger automated responses like blocking or requiring 2FA.
The best APIs can also offer flexible use cases for detecting proxies, including content delivery, fraud prevention, and SaaS login protection. For example, a content delivery network can use the detection to ensure that it is serving the most appropriate version of its content for a specific region or language.
A simple and effective proxy detection method involves comparing the operating system advertised by the browser’s User-Agent to the actual OS on the device. This is because most proxy software will spoof the operating system, and by matching up the two you can see that it’s probably a proxy. Additionally, many proxies will leave open ports, which can be detected by checking whether a particular port is known to be used on a proxy. For example, a popular proxy will often leave port 22 open.
