How malicious actors use proxies in their operations:
- Malicious actors route their traffic and hide their identity through proxies: the internet abounds in offers, many listed on professional-looking websites with careful marketing to look legitimate.
- Criminals leverage proxy anonymity to bypass server security systems and to prevent getting flagged as high-risk attack sources.
- Most proxy providers advertise their services on the criminal underground, and even offer special deals and promotional codes
Proxy Profiles
Proxies can be
- misconfigured servers that can be easily abused
- purchased from legitimate telecom companies
- hacked systems whose bandwidth is abused without owners’ consent
- configured through bulk data plans
Data centers are the cheapest option. The premium for residential versus data center proxies varies between 47% and 67%, depending on the level of activity. The price for mobile proxies is 3 to 8 times higher than that of data centers -> exceptionally expensive.
How Is the Offer in Canada?
Here’s where the Canadian proxy market stands:
- Mixed portfolio of international proxies
- No specific offer for Canadian proxies, making it hard to impersonate a Canadian account
- No rotating proxies for sale
- Limited supply of Canadian mobile proxies
- No free trials
- No cryptocurrency payments
- Only Russian WebMoney or credit cards accepted
- Providers request personal information, emails, phone numbers or list of targeted websites
Misleading ads: proxy providers do not provide new IP addresses, as claimed
- Same address reused 12 times
- 50% of IPs seen more than once
- 28% of IPs provided by 2 providers
- They are renting out computers infected with malware and IoT devices from botnet operators.
- 8% of IPs were botnets
- Most IPs had a low fraud score
Geographical distribution across Canada
Proxies can come from dozens of ISPs, and from any city in the country. With a fraud score below 10, the chances for them to be automatically flagged by security systems are slim.