Residential VPN detection feed is a set of systems that identify network traffic that is routed through a home or office connection (or residential proxy) rather than the device itself. This type of VPN masks the origin of malicious activities to evade detection and security measures, including access restrictions and region-based limitations on digital platforms. While VPNs are legitimate privacy and security tools, using them to bypass platform terms of service or regional access rules may violate their terms of use.

Cyber Threat Intelligence Feeds: Key Benefits for Enterprises

The key difference between a residential proxy and a datacenter server is that the residential IP address belongs to a real internet user – a real person at home or work with their own devices like cell phones or laptops. This adds credibility to the traffic and makes it less likely to be blocked by services or websites, but also means that it can be slow and unreliable.

Spur’s residential VPN detection tools look at metadata (information about how a device and network are connected) and behavioral patterns to detect traffic that might be coming from a residential proxy. Our tools can also detect if the VPN is encrypted or not, which can help identify which device is used to connect to a VPN.

Detecting residential VPN traffic is important for businesses operating online or accepting digital payments. For example, media companies have contracts that dictate where they can sell movies or stream content, so they use VPN detection to spot attempts to access restricted content outside their intended markets – which is a clear violation of the terms of service. In addition, SOC teams can use residential VPN detection to flag suspicious infrastructure during authentication events or to block attacks that use a known VPN or proxy to evade detection.