How Proxies Help Protect Against Emerging Threats Protecting sensitive data is a crucial subject for individuals and businesses alike. For t...

How Proxies Help Protect Against Emerging Threats

Protecting sensitive data is a crucial subject for individuals and businesses alike. For the privacy-minded consumer, robust security measures provide a sense of safety and trust. Corporations seek to offer the same, and with recent laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), privacy is no longer optional.

As we digitize more of our data and cloud computing increases, the need for a comprehensive privacy solution becomes readily apparent. Proxies are an integral tool in a security analyst’s toolbox. Whether you’re looking to protect personal information or stay ahead of the cybersecurity curve, specialized proxies can help you achieve your goals.

Data Is Your Most Valuable Asset

Information is the currency of computing, and your personal data is priceless. Businesses spend massive budgets each year to collect a small fraction of user data, and this data can predict trends, assess demographics, or influence habits.

In recent years, there’s been a push for stricter privacy measures. These regulations require companies to disclose their data collection practices and outline best practices for data handling. Specifically, the GDPR imposes hefty fines for any company which violates the guidelines outlined.

It benefits consumers and businesses to take a proactive approach to data protection. While an all-encompassing privacy governance policy is ideal, there are immediate steps you can take to bolster security today using proxies.

The key to understanding how proxies play a role in security is realizing that a computer is only as valuable as the information it contains. Therefore, it is the data itself that should be the focus of protection. Since we transmit the majority of our data over the internet, proxies provide vital security controls during that critical transmission.

Top Breaches Targeting Your Data

The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) specializes in cataloging the top internet safety issues. According to the OWASP Top-10 for 2021, most security issues involve broken access control, cryptography failures, and data integrity failures. 

These items can all potentially expose sensitive data. In a world where everything from shopping to banking occurs online, these security flaws become even more damaging.

Since in-house apps can still contain bugs and security flaws, adopting a multi-layered security approach is crucial. We recommend using proxies as part of your strategy to protect data.

Implementing Transmission Controls Using Proxies

Data is at one of its most vulnerable points during transmission. During sending or receiving, information can be intercepted, redirected, altered, or destroyed. Even worse, skilled bad actors can often carry out these attacks with minimal traceability, making detection and prosecution challenging.

It’s imperative to guard against these threats by implementing technical controls. The examples below demonstrate two types of proxy setups for mitigating data breaches: 

• Private Proxies 

Also called anonymous proxies or proxy gateways, private proxies are the more common type found on the internet. These proxies act as the middle-man between a client and server to anonymize confidential information. 

Classic private proxies typically would not employ encryption, although modern variants can use SSL/TLS or more exotic cryptography if desired. The primary use of private proxies is to obfuscate the actual location information of the client; with sufficient nodes, the client could become practically untraceable.

One particular advantage of private proxies is their prolific availability, being offered by nearly all proxy providers. For home users, a decent private proxy is an economical way to enhance privacy with minimal hassle. 

• Application Proxies 

These proxies, also known as app gateways, serve a different purpose than their anonymity-centric cousins. As their name implies, application proxies filter specific data types, allowing only recognized or whitelisted packets through while discarding the others.

In this way, application proxies are similar to standard firewalls but much more configurable, often wholly customized by the organization using them. Application proxies are a recognized part of Network Security Essentials Standards and Practices (NSE-SP).

Summary

Modern businesses and consumers are seeing an exponential move to network and cloud computing, creating an unprecedented need for robust privacy measures. Proxies can provide much-needed support when faced with increasing demand to safeguard data from individuals, activist groups, and government bodies.

Considering the invaluable cost of private data and the threat of punitive fines and damages from regulations, the return on investment from proxies implementation is evident.