Cyber-attacks have lately been going up. DDoS attacks have affected numerous postal and banking services in New Zealand, making those services not accessible and customers angry. In Russia, technology company Yandex was met with the largest-documented DDoS attack. With the increased cyber-attack count around the globe, businesses must know ways of handling the misuse of IPv4 addresses and IPv6 addresses.
IP address misuse means the inappropriate use of a web server or IP address, including spam, malware, DDoS, hacking, phishing and other such attacks. As per a recent survey, 81% of polled organizations were affected by at least one security breach in the past year. Those figures should be concerning for small-scale businesses and established firms, as it is a priority to have a good organizational IP reputation.
When an organization experiences the misuse of IP addresses, it could put its reputation at risk. An example is the consequences of a distributed denial-of-service attack that businesses encounter. If the company uses an IP range that is in the Spamhaus blacklist, it could not deliver electronic mails outside of its network and could contribute to a reduction in the IP address range’s price. It could affect the value of your transactions in the IP market.
When such misuse is not addressed, it would cause UCEProtect level 3, ‘Peer’ or ‘Don’t Route’ blacklists. A business enterprise can take some measures to not just address IP abuse but also protect its network. It is possible to protect servers with an SSH (secure socket shell) key. For the uninitiated, the word SSH refers to a network protocol that enables remotely accessing a device, such as a computer, through access credentials for authorized users. A strong password, preferably one with 16 digits, will reduce the possibility of getting hacked as well.
It is vital to react quickly by reporting the IP address that engages in an abusive activity on your network. The longer you ignore the activity, the bigger would be the possibility of the address getting blacklisted, causing major issues for your business. That said, it is tricky to be in control of cyber security threats and ensure that each of those is caught and appropriately handled.
Outsourcing this kind of task to a trusted IP resource management service provider can let a business keep focusing on scaling and expansion while addressing its IP resource security.
The cyber-attack count keeps prompting serious government responses when businesses consider cyber vulnerabilities an existential risk. At this time, companies should pay more attention to IP address misuse and how to address it.