Bulk IP lookups, which allow to check the location of multiple IP addresses at once, are beneficial to cybersecurity professionals in several ways. Knowing where threats typically come from, for one, can help them prevent potentially dangerous IP addresses from communicating with their network. Companies that keep customers’ IP addresses on hand can also avoid dealings with fraudsters who may be attempting to use their accounts to purchase goods and services. And if alert fatigue is a risk, bulk IP lookups provided by services like this one can be of help, too.
We illustrated these use cases in the following sections.
Prevent Threats from Infiltrating Your Network
In cybersecurity, prevention is better than cure. That is why many organizations subscribe to various threat reports. By knowing where threats usually come from, they can avoid the risk of letting a malicious IP address into their network at the onset.
Many of us know by now that attacks typically begin when someone in your network clicks a malicious link embedded in a spam or phishing email or downloads a malicious attachment. If you constantly track the top 10 worst spam countries to avoid the dangers that malicious emails can bring, then you would know that you need to be wary of suspicious messages from China, the U.S., and Russia (the top 3 worst spam countries as of 3 May 2021).
Given a network log containing the IP addresses 61[.]177[.]173[.]20, 168[.]138[.]70[.]138, 195[.]191[.]183[.]60, 104[.]131[.]40[.]125, 121[.]227[.]153[.]232, 46[.]99[.]106[.]198, 162[.]241[.]50[.]11, 167[.]71[.]46[.]139, 195[.]239[.]136[.]106, and 179[.]113[.]100[.]88, therefore, you would know that two each originated from China (61[.]177[.]173[.]20 and 121[.]227[.]153[.]232), the U.S. (104[.]131[.]40[.]125 and 162[.]241[.]50[.]11), and Russia (195[.]191[.]183[.]60 and 195[.]239[.]136[.]106).
If blocking access to these outright is not an option because you have customers, employees, or stakeholders from the countries, subject them to closer scrutiny at the very least. Check if any of them are malicious and include the ones that are in your blocklist.
Gain Insights into Emerging Security Trends
Some organizations are more attractive cyber attack targets than others. And many may be in threat actors’ sights more than once. An example would be Yahoo!, which holds the record for being the victim of the largest data breach to date. Before exposing the data of 500 million users in the latter part of 2014, its network was hacked in August 2013, putting its 3 billion users at risk. Yahoo! Is not alone in this plight, though, as any company can get hacked repeatedly over time.
Employing a bulk IP lookup tool to gain insights into where attempts to breach your network come from over time can lessen your chances of becoming a victim over and over. If the source IP addresses of failed login attempts to your network usually come from Brazil, Canada, and Germany, setting up alerts when such come into contact with any of your Internet-facing properties can help you avoid successful breaches.
Using the same set of IP addresses in the example above, you should get alerted by your security solution fed with bulk IP lookup data when users of 168[.]138[.]70[.]138 (from Canada), 167[.]71[.]46[.]139 (from Germany), and 179[.]113[.]100[.]88 (from Brazil) attempt to log in to any of your network-connected systems.
Prioritize Threat Alerts
Just as you would use a bulk IP lookup tool with third-party threat intelligence, you can use the same data to prioritize security alerts. Since you know that most threats that rely on users to click links in or download attachments to spam emails, you can begin analyzing alerts that have ties to the top 10 worst spam countries. That way, your security team would not be overwhelmed by thousands of alerts each day.
You can use other threat lists in combination with bulk IP lookups, too. Examples include the threat reports published regularly by various security vendors.
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Threat prevention, obtaining much-needed cybersecurity insights, and alert prioritization are, however, not the only benefits that bulk IP lookup tools can help with. The information these solutions provide can also aid in attacker identification, fraud prevention, and indicator of compromise (IoC) list expansion that you do not have to do one by one.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.