The use of internet censorship circumvention or anti-proxy tools such as personal VPN and anonymous proxy applications is on the rise. This trend is primarily fueled by internet users' increasing privacy concerns and the wish to bypass internet censorship controls imposed by their workplace, school, or government to access otherwise restricted content, such as social media and streaming services like Netflix. Global Web Index has found that more than 56% of all VPN users access Netflix each month.
Anonymous proxies and VPNs offer internet users much freedom, but these applications can be a real problem when used by employees to access the organization’s network.
Read on to learn the risks anonymous proxy and VPN applications pose to organizations or watch our video for a quick warm-up.
The Risks of Anonymous Proxy and VPN Apps
Higher Costs and Lower Productivity
By subverting network access policies (known as proxy avoidance), employees who use anonymous proxy and VPN apps are free to browse social media and use applications that may otherwise be blocked. This leads to low productivity. They can also stream large high-definition videos. This takes valuable bandwidth away from workloads and systems, which results in lagging or even disruptive downtime. Without the means to detect anonymous proxies and VPNs, IT administrators may even be misled to purchase more bandwidth.
Expose Network to Cyber-Attack
A much more severe consequence of proxy avoidance is the introduction of threats into the network, which leaves organizations at risk of cyber-attack. Anonymous proxy and VPN apps make employee devices invisible to IT administrators and allow them to bypass the various defenses set up to protect the network. For example, the organization’s firewall is rendered useless when an employee clicks on a malicious link in a phishing email, introducing malware into the network. What's more, medium to critical vulnerabilities have been discovered in some mainstream VPNs (such as Private Internet Access VPN, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, CyberGhost VPN, and Proton VPN), giving attackers an easy route into the enterprise network.
Sensitive Data Leakage
Apart from allowing users to bypass security controls, anonymous proxy and VPN apps give users access to network resources that may otherwise be restricted. This increases the risk of employees, either accidentally or intentionally, leaking sensitive information and data. Several VPN applications have also been found to keep a log of user traffic data (despite claiming the contrary), with instances where this data has been sold to third parties. The risk of a sensitive data leak is very real. This can lead to loss of competitive advantage, reputational damage, and non-compliance penalties among other serious consequences.
What IT administrators need is the means to detect and block anonymous proxy and VPN applications trying to connect to the network.
Disable Anonymous Proxy and VPN Apps with Sangfor Application Containment
Sangfor Application Containment takes application and network enforcement to the next level by correlating the behavior of endpoints, containers, and workloads with network behavior to give administrators complete visibility of application activity.
With Application Containment, Sangfor Endpoint Secure sends the top 300 running programs running on the endpoint, including any anonymous proxies and VPNs, to Sangfor NGAF or IAG. Application Containment policies can be created on NGAF and IAG to block or monitor specific applications. Proxy Avoidance Protection, a subset of Application Containment, leverages a library of anonymous proxy applications (e.g., Ultrasurf, Psiphon, Freegate), VPNs, and anonymous browsers to create granular blocking and monitoring policies, which are enforced by the Endpoint Secure Protect Agent.
Proxy Avoidance Protection through Correlation
Sangfor Application Containment is the only solution where network and endpoint (whether on-premises or in the cloud) truly work together to identify, control, and report both allowed and malicious applications running on endpoints and communicating across the network. Sangfor NGAF, IAG, and Endpoint Secure correlate to provide real-time visualization and blocking of anonymous proxies, VPNs, and other malicious apps throughout the network. This is vital for preventing lateral movement of ransomware, malware, and APT.
Take back control from anonymous proxy and VPN applications and secure your business with Sangfor Application Containment. To learn more, please visit: https://www.sangfor.com/cloud-and-infrastructure/solutions/proxy-avoidance-protection
About Sangfor
Sangfor Technologies is an APAC-based, leading global vendor specializing in Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, and IT Infrastructure. Founded in 2000 and publicly listed since 2018 (STOCK CODE: 300454.SZ), Sangfor employs 9,500 employees, operates 60 offices, and serves more than 100,000 customers worldwide, many of them Fortune Global 500 companies, governmental institutions, universities, and schools. Visit us at www.sangfor.com to learn more about Sangfor’s solutions and let Sangfor make Your Digital Transformation Simpler and Secure.
