Short, plain definitions of the terms that come up when you protect a sign-up form, a login or a checkout from fraud and bots.
Each entry explains the idea in general, then how VerifIP (IP, email, phone and URL reputation) or DetectBT (browser bot detection) uses it, with a link to the exact part of the API reference.
Network and IP terms
- IP fraud score
- An IP fraud score is a number, usually from 0 to 100, that estimates how risky a request is, judged only by the IP address it came from.
- Residential proxy
- A residential proxy is a proxy server whose exit address belongs to an ordinary home or mobile internet connection, so websites see its requests as coming from a regular subscriber rather than a server.
- Datacenter IP
- A datacenter IP is an address owned by a hosting, cloud or colocation provider rather than by a home broadband or mobile network.
- Tor exit node
- A Tor exit node is the last relay in a Tor circuit: the server that sends a Tor user’s traffic out to the open internet, so websites see the exit node’s IP address instead of the user’s.
- ASN (autonomous system number)
- An ASN (autonomous system number) is the number that identifies a network, such as an internet provider, mobile operator, cloud provider or large company, that announces blocks of IP addresses to the rest of the internet.
- CGNAT (carrier-grade NAT)
- CGNAT (carrier-grade network address translation) is a technique internet providers and mobile operators use to share one public IPv4 address among many customers at the same time.
Identity, browser and attack terms
- Disposable email address
- A disposable email address is a temporary inbox from a throwaway email service that anyone can use without registering, often for only minutes or hours.
- Headless browser
- A headless browser is a real web browser engine, such as Chromium, Firefox or WebKit, that runs without a visible window and is controlled by code.
- Credential stuffing
- Credential stuffing is an attack in which stolen username and password pairs are tried automatically against a website’s login form to take over accounts.
- Device fingerprint
- A device fingerprint is an identifier computed from the characteristics of a browser or device, such as how it renders graphics, which features it supports and how it is configured, so that the same device can be recognised again without a cookie.
To see the terms at work, read the use-case guides, or look up any field in the API documentation.