What is IP Reputation?

An IP reputation is the indicator for how trustworthy an IP address is. A history of non-malicious activity and relationships will lead to a stronger IP reputation. Conversely, if the IP address is associated with malicious behaviour or malware, has previously been hijacked by threat actors or is connected to untrustworthy domains such as those known to host phishing sites, the reputation will suffer as a result. 

Relating to ‘internet protocol’ (IP) addresses, everything connected to the internet has its own address. An IP address is used to locate websites and devices on the internet, so communications can occur between them.  

An address’ reputation functions in much the same way as an address would in the real world. An address with a poor reputation is less likely to be viewed in the same way as one with a good reputation and communication and transactions to and from that address are also likely to be different. 

What if you have a bad IP reputation? 

A poor IP reputation can have a massive impact on a business, particularly if it heavily relies on email communications. Web browsers are likely to deter users from accessing domains with a bad IP reputation and web pages are likely to fall down the rankings of search results in search engines. 

If you pay for ads that you want people see while browsing, the presence of these will also suffer through a bad reputation. 

A strong IP reputation means the corresponding device with that address is a trustworthy location for information and internet communications. For email communication, this is very important. A poor reputation can lead to emails being flagged as spam or not going to the recipient’s main inbox. 

If your website or server is hijacked and used in a malicious spam (‘malspam’) campaign, future emails sent will not be considered trustworthy. This can be devastating for email marketing campaigns.  

How is an IP reputation score determined? 

An IP address’ reputation is determined by a score based upon a selection of factors. These will include: 

• IP category 
• IP age 
• IP history 
• Domain reputation 
• Associated URL reputation 
• Popularity 
• Real-time performance 
• Presence of downloadable files or code 
• Previous association with malicious internet objects 
• Current association with malicious internet objects 
• Hosting location 
• Website and/or network owner 
• Presence on any allow/block lists 

How Securiwiser can help 

Securiwiser provides a cybersecurity assessment service that analyses your domains and provides insight to your company’s IP reputation. It will inform you of blacklisted domains and blacklisted mail servers. 

This knowledge can be vital to the future productivity of your business. Securiwiser’s cybersecurity risk assessment will also analyse network security, DNS health, cubit score, exposure and application security. Try it for free today.