Every device connected to the internet has a unique identifier known as an IP address. The unique label helps firewalls and cybersecurity solutions differentiate devices that are trustworthy from those considered suspicious or malicious. An IP address can be classified as malicious based on its history of launching denial-of-service attacks, hosting phishing sites, dropping malware or illegally hosting intellectual property violations or criminally obscene material. high risk IP address detection types of behaviors are usually tracked by a reputation service and are used to generate an IP risk score.

What is the risk score of IP?

It is important to understand that a single IP risk score doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the user or transaction you are evaluating. For instance, IP addresses are not permanent; they can change quickly depending on the way a person connects to the internet, such as when using a public WiFi connection at a coffee shop or through AT&T’s mobile network. IP reputation services track these changes and provide data that is updated on a regular basis.

Using this information in combination with other factors like geolocation, device data and customer risk scores can help you detect suspicious transactions and take action that may reduce your chargeback rate. Many merchants use high risk IP address detection to evaluate users and transactions, determining whether or not they are worth the effort to pursue or if a transaction should be held pending human review. For example, a high risk IP could be associated with fraudsters that attempt to hide their identities and locations by connecting through Proxies and VPN’s.