The malicious IP lookup quickly can help you limit damage by preventing users from accessing a website that is known to host illegal content or is part of an attack. Many organizations and tools develop reputation lists or blacklists of malicious IPs, which your firewall can use to exclude unwanted traffic. Using these tools in combination with frequent updates to the list and firewall software is the best way to protect your company data and digital infrastructure from bad actors.

A malicious IP is associated with phishing sites, malware, suspicious locations, open ports, or other bad behavior. When you see a malicious IP listed, it is important to perform an investigation and remove any compromised systems from your network.

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To determine an IP’s reputation, you can look up the IP address in an online resource like Umbrella Investigate. The investigation results provide an overall risk level in 5 stages, domain and open ports information, vulnerabilities, screenshots, network logs, and technologies associated with the destination IP address.

If the destination IP is a device, you can also view the device’s reputation score and any associated samples. Samples are file checksums that have been submitted to Cisco Secure Malware Analytics and integrated into Umbrella Investigate.

A positive device reputation indicates the IP is not associated with a phishing site, spam, malware, dangerous domains, or suspicious locations. The overall threat score of a device is determined by analyzing the security history of its owner, including reported vulnerabilities and activities.