Identify VPN Usage on Networks

Identify VPN usage on networks

Websites and fingerprinting for fraud analysis business reasons to want to know where their traffic is coming from, including protecting against freeloaders, bandwidth hogs, and compliance issues. As a result, hardware manufacturers and software developers have created products that can detect VPN use and block site access for those users. While this method of detection has some limitations, it can be an effective way to protect a platform from fraud and other threats.

A common way to detect VPN usage is by examining IP address locations. This can be done using a variety of online tools that show the geographic location of an IP address. If a user’s IP address is showing up in a different location than their system time and language settings, this is a strong indicator that they are using a VPN.

How to Analyze IP Reputation for Threats in Real Time

Another method involves analyzing the Maximum Transmission Unit, or MTU, of data packets. Different VPN protocols adjust MTU values to optimize data transmission over network infrastructures. If a user’s MTU value is significantly higher than their normal connection, this can indicate the use of a VPN.

Fingerprint is a device intelligence platform that analyzes web and mobile visitors to accurately recognize devices, detect suspicious behaviors like VPN usage, bot traffic, virtual machine use, and more. It can also spoof browser properties to avoid detection and is highly accurate when combined with other detection methods. This combination provides more precise results and minimizes false alarms.