Brand protection from cyber-security threats is a cause for worry among business owners. And it gets worse by the day as cybercriminals use more sophisticated methods to steal sensitive data, install the malware in sites, and disrupt business operations.
How to Use Proxies to Protect Your Brand [Full Guide]
A business whose network security has been compromised results in a poor relationship with your customers and stakeholders. It could result in reduced profitability and low competitiveness.
Here are the effects that a cyber-attack can have on your business
- Heavy financial losses
- Lost market share
- Bad reputation
- Death of a brand
- Exposed business plans
But all is not lost for businesses. By investing in the right infrastructure, it becomes possible to have effective defensive measures put in place.
One such infrastructure that aids with the protection of brands is a proxy. Visit oxylabs to learn more about brand protection using proxies!
Using a Proxy For Brand Protection
Proxies are not just important in web scraping projects; they prevent your business’s devices from having a direct connection with the internet. And this ensures that cybercriminals cannot gain access to your servers. The proxy hides the real IP address of the device connected to the web.
It is also possible to accidentally access sites that are not genuine during market research. And this could draw cybercriminals to carry out some criminal activities on your site. Masking your IP address prevents such an occurrence.
Check Also: How To Link Amazon Prime To Twitch
With your IP address hidden, you never have to worry about corporate espionage. Corporate espionage is where spies monitor your web movement to try and figure out the projects that your business is working on. Such internet criminals can also try to access sensitive details about your company and sell it to your competitors.
Proxies also help you control the traffic that flows in and out of your network, enabling you to block suspicious web requests. You can also monitor internal online activities and ensure that your employees are not accessing risky websites on the business’s network. This ensures that only genuine and real traffic is flowing within your network.
Which is the Best Proxy For Protecting Your Brand?
There are two main types of proxies that you can use in the market
Data Center Proxies
These are artificially created in a data center, and they trace back to the corporation that made them. They do not depend on an internet service provider or your internet connection.
Data center proxies are easily available in large quantities and are great at hiding your real location, enabling anonymous browsing. They have a very fast connection.
Residential Proxies
Residential proxies are a type of proxy supplied by internet service providers to homeowners. They are legitimate and attached to a specific geographic location.
The fact that they are real means that you can use them to hide your IP address without making it obvious. But they are not as easily available as data center proxies.
Shared Proxies
This is a classification of proxies where a number of users share proxies and their corresponding costs. The proxies rotate between the users. Shared proxies tend to be slow especially when several people are using them at a go.
Dedicated Proxies
Dedicated or private proxies are when one user has exclusive use of a proxy. They are fast and more reliable than shared proxies.
Residential proxies are great for protecting your brand because they are more reliable and can be put to additional use, such as web scraping and price scraping.
However, if you are working on a budget, use data center proxies. They are available in large numbers, making it easy to control large amounts of traffic using rotating IP addresses. They are also very fast. Whether you are using residential or data center proxies, ensure that it’s private.
Shared proxies come with high-risk because you cannot control the websites that the other users are visiting. Neither can you control their activities. Shared proxies may be cheaper, but they could expose your brand to more cyber risk instead of providing protection.
Conclusion
Most startups and small businesses cannot afford to invest in an on-site security business. Cheaper alternatives, such as proxies, can offer brand protection while providing additional functionality. They make it possible for businesses to scrape data for market intelligence, access blocked websites, carry out keyword research, and ad verification.
By using a proxy, you get to:
- Protect your brand from malicious websites that you may visit during market research
- Monitor online activity within your site
- Browse websites anonymously
Ensure that you are working with a vendor that can supply legitimate proxies. Avoid shared proxies regardless of their affordability. Instead, use dedicated proxies. Cheap is always expensive in the long run. And be sure to get proxies that can apply a rotating system to the IP addresses.