Cybercriminals actively target vulnerable IP addresses to host malware and conduct illegal activity they don’t want traced back. When cybercriminals use an IP address for malicious activity, it may be put on a blacklist. Regularly conducting IP reputation checks can help organizations prevent further reputation loss and speed up the time-to-detection in the event of a cybersecurity incident.

What Impact Does My IP Reputation Have on Cybersecurity?

IP reputations determine whether digital communications from your organization will end up on an email blacklist, or make it past the spam email filter. Email service providers analyze numerous factors, and the trustworthiness of digital communication efforts rely substantially on the cleanliness of your IP address. Excess spam flags may have a negative impact on both your sales and marketing email campaigns, as well as your organization itself.

Even more importantly, blacklisted IPs may also indicate security concerns. Sixty percent of companies receive a “C” or lower grade in IP reputation. Alarmingly, even beginner-level threat actors can breach vulnerable network IPs for target practice. The IP address can be exploited for malicious use without the victim even knowing.

5 Steps to Improve Your IP Reputation

  1. Proactively monitor your cyber risk posture and look into reputation vulnerabilities. 
  2. Ask reputation and content filtering sites to properly categorize your website. 
  3. Block unexpected/ malicious traffic on the firewall. 
  4. Change the default resolving IP address of all domains to a whitelisted IP or a loopback IP. 
  5. Avoid using shared services, or IP addresses used by other domains, wherever possible.

Why was my IP Blacklisted?

An IP address is blacklisted when suspicious activity is detected. IPs may be blacklisted for a variety of reasons, including a high number of failed login attempts to your control panel within a short period of time. You may think it is a result of personal password attempts, but it could very well be a cybercriminal trying to breach your data.

While employees are sometimes behind suspicious online behavior, cybercriminals are often the ones responsible for poor IP reputation. Although blacklist status is often temporary, it’s important to remain aware of the cyber risk associated with blacklisted IP addresses.

Can I Check Whether My IP Has Been Blacklisted?

Black Kite’s Blacklist Service provides an accurate glimpse of your IP reputation within seconds. Simply enter your specific IP address and our free cyber intelligence tool will use its worldwide honeypot systems to determine whether your address is associated with any blacklist.

Search Your IP Address

The database displays five categories such as reputation and malware to show what kind of threat your IP is linked to on a blacklist. It will also show when your IP address was listed, last updated and who maintains the database where your IP was found. You can also filter results using the search box, sort with respect to the field and check or uncheck fields that you want to be shown.

Monitoring your blacklist status is a simple step in understanding your cyber risk posture. IP reputation dictates much of how your organization operates digitally behind the scenes, so it is important to stay up to date on your blacklist status. Don’t let cyber criminals diminish your IP reputation and get started today with Black Kite’s free IP Blacklist Search Tool.

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