Cybersecurity threats are very real, and can be hugely problematic to a lot of businesses or even individuals, especially if you don’t train your staff on the importance of cybersecurity, or if your business has particular weaknesses that can make it an easy target for potential cyber criminals.

What is IP Geolocation Data and what is it for?

IP geolocation data maps someone to a geographic place by using details shared when they make connections with other devices, such as ISPs. Devices are constantly making these kinds of locations and it means that businesses can track things like where their own customers are accessing their website or trying to connect to servers from.

There are some steps that criminals take to hide IP address data, but this isn’t always successful, and the data also shares information like ISP, area codes, city and state, as well as things like the browser being used.

What is IP Geolocation in cyber security?  

In cyber security the geolocation data can be one of a number of different tools that businesses use for their security, and tracking those who are trying to connect to their business and services.

Geolocations can be used to identify if there are a huge number of requests coming to your site or server from a specific place that may have a reputation for sending a lot of potentially fraudulent hackers and other negative, worrying traffic.

This data has also become useful for certain things like establishing what sort of content you should display. Ever wondered how global websites know what currency they should be showing prices in? This is because they are likely using your geolocation.

In security terms, they can identify proxies, scrapers, or even large VPNs that are being used to access your server, which could be a sign of fraudsters trying to hide their identity.

How IP Geolocation Augments Your DiD Strategy

As part of your cyber security awareness you may have come to understand the term DiD, which is a form of strategy using layers of defense. It stands for Defense in Depth.

This means that if one of the failsafes you put in place to stop attacks on your servers or data should fail, something else is intended to take over. This layered approach means that you aren’t just relying on one method to stop the potential criminals 

Your IT infrastructure can include geolocation as one of the “clues”. If you suddenly get an influx of traffic from one location, particularly if it is one that is known for cyber attacks, then you might find blocking this traffic location be your first layer of defense. If not, there are other methods.

How to Secure IP Geolocation

If you are looking to secure your IP geolocation and make it difficult for people to find you, then there are tools that can be used to prevent people from working out where you are located in the world.

A lot of people now do this as a matter of course, so they don’t have to worry about their loation information being shared.

The most common method is using a VPN, which routes traffic through a server in another location. This means that when a connection is established on a website or other web server, it appears you are coming from a different location, or even a totally random location. This is a way for people to access websites in different languages and with different geolocation restrictions, also. For instance, if you want to visit a different version of a streaming service.

Conclusion

Cyber security threats are very common and they are becoming even more of an issue. There are examples of some really huge companies that have even been compromised, so don’t think that your personal data or company data is beyond possible security risks. Instead, it is a good idea to have multiple security systems in place.

Layers of cyber security are required, and on its own, geolocation can only do so much. However, as a part of a wider security strategy, it can be a useful tool to filter out potentially risky connections stemming from certain locations in the world.