May 11, 2021 (Vancouver, BC) – GeoComply Solutions Inc, a geolocation security company that helps detect and prevent fraud, today announced significant updates to GeoGuard DB, its industry-leading VPN and proxy detection solution for the OTT and streaming video market.
As the Hollywood Studio Approved gold standard, GeoGuard DB is used by premier online broadcasters worldwide including the BBC, Amazon Prime Video, CBC, and Telstra to protect their territorially restricted content from geo-piracy and geolocation fraud. GeoGuard DB protects over 10 billion streaming requests and over 300 million unique streaming users per month.
With the new features and enhancements to GeoGuard DB, rights holders, including studios and sports leagues, who rely on territorial restrictions to maintain the value of their content rights, and OTT broadcasters, who are contractually obliged to combat this form of content leakage, can benefit from an advanced level of geolocation fraud protection.
GeoGuard DB’s new and enhanced features include support for:
- Proxy Over VPN: As the only solution in the industry with this functionality, GeoGuard DB’s advanced logic can now identify attempts by premium VPN providers to target high value video streaming services using proxy over VPN techniques that effectively double-spoof the streaming provider in an attempt to go undetected. GeoGuard DB’s advanced logic now identifies such attacks to prevent content leakage.
- CDN Integrations: GeoGuard DB is now fully integrated with leading CDNs including Akamai and Amazon AWS CloudFront. This makes turning on VPN and proxy detection as easy as flipping a switch. GeoGuard DB will be integrated with other CDNs in the near future. GeoGuard DB is the only solution fully integrated with Akamai, the world’s largest CDN for the streaming industry, powering their Enhanced Proxy Detection (EPD) service.
- IPv6: With VPN providers adding IPv6 ranges that allow users to spoof their location, GeoComply has added IPv6 detection to GeoGuard DB. This allows OTT broadcasters to remain fully compliant with their contractual obligations and business rules while continuing to allow users to access their services on IPv6-only connections.
- Residential IPs: Free VPN solutions and other malicious apps hijack domestic IP addresses and resell them to premium VPN providers to enable users to appear as though they are a legitimate user in the territory of their choosing. GeoGuard DB can now dynamically track and flag compromised residential IPs.
“Piracy continues to be a major problem facing studios, sports leagues and other content producers and distributors,” says Chris Odgers, former VP of Technology at WarnerMedia. “Fortunately, one important component of content piracy, geo-fraud, can easily be addressed with GeoComply’s solution. Territorial exclusivity and ensuring that content is not leaking via VPNs is part of most licensing contracts and GeoGuard DB is the tested and trusted industry solution that can make it happen.”
“The pandemic is driving a huge surge in VPN and proxy usage to bypass territorial restrictions on content,” said James Clark, Director of Global Sales at GeoComply. “This situation threatens the entire streaming ecosystem which relies on territorial exclusivity for its revenues. With VPN providers constantly developing new strategies to exploit weaknesses in the streaming infrastructure, our job is to ensure that GeoGuard DB stays one step ahead in the battle against geolocation fraud and geo-piracy.”
GeoGuard DB is independently rated by Kingsmead Security as 99.6% effective in detecting VPNs and DNS proxies and is updated more often than any other solution on the market to ensure the lowest false positives and the highest accuracy rates in the industry.
GeoGuard’s award-winning geolocation fraud detection solutions are used by top streaming video companies, online broadcasters and sports leagues worldwide. These latest enhancements are now fully integrated into the platforms of the world’s largest CDN providers including Akamai and Amazon to protect against geo-piracy and geolocation fraud caused by the use of VPNs and DNS proxies to circumvent geographical restrictions on content.
About GeoComply Solutions Inc.
GeoComply is a global leader in geolocation, compliance and fraud detection technology. Founded in 2011, GeoComply has quickly become the digital industry’s trusted solution for reliable, secure and accurate geolocation services. GeoComply currently supports the location verification requirements for iGaming, broadcasting and Fintech, with customers including Amazon Prime Video, BBC, Roku, Draft Kings, FanDuel, Foxtel, MGM and Telstra.
