GeoComply, the market leader in geolocation security has announced today a first in industry technology for streaming platforms that tightens the net around pirate viewers online. The modern technology enhancement to GeoGuard allows streaming platforms to block the increasing number of VPN users who spoof their location using hijacked residential IP addresses. To reduce the burden on providers’ infrastructure and CDN ability, this technology helps the service providers follow their contractual agreements with rights holders.
GeoComply estimates that over two hundred million internet users worldwide are unknowingly victims of residential proxy IP abuse. Their IP addresses are exploited to bypass the VPN restrictions and access territorially restricted content, which contributes to streaming piracy and threatens the media and entertainment ecosystem. This happens because users sign up for a free VPN or DNS proxy service without reading the terms and conditions that allows the VPN providers to sublease the IP address distributed by their ISP to their home or businesses. IP addresses are also hijacked during cyber-attacks that infects a user’s device with Trojan code or malware software, and connects it to a botnet.
Free VPN providers profit by trading hijacked residential IP addresses to the highest bidder, usually a provider of “undetectable” premium VPN services. These services give the ability to spoof their location using hijacked addresses to their subscribers.
James Clark, general manager of media & entertainment, GeoComply, says that a recent report finds that more than 1.5m fewer people now subscribe to streaming services in the UK compared to 2021. More than a third of these losses could be attributed to families trying to cut expenses. We believe the problem of hijacked residential IPs will only rise as viewers turn to VPNs to find cheaper subscriptions in other regions or use them to access pirated services. To fight this problem, we can now accurately detect users accessing streaming services using hijacked residential IP addresses to help uphold the regional licensing models our customers depend on.
Through its industry monitoring system, GeoComply has found 17 companies that sell residential proxy IPs, including Bright Data (Luminati), Oxylabs, and SmartProxy. Bright Data company alone offers over 72 million addresses for sale.
GeoGuard’s award-winning VPN and DNS proxy detection is incorporated with CDNs, including Akamai and AWS CloudFront, making it possible to detect residential IP addresses quickly and stop illegal streams.
GeoGuard is independently rated by Kingsmead Security as 99.6% effective in detecting VPNs and DNS proxies and is more often updated than any other solution on the market to ensure the lowest false positives and the highest accuracy rates in the industry. GeoGuard protects over 300 million unique streaming request users per day as the Hollywood Studio-approved gold standard for it.
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