Are Tor/VNP/etc a threat, aka. Is there any point to ban IPs

The original topic had the purpose of discussing Tor blocking in relation to unwanted but not security-related activity. My impression is that this one was forked to discuss Tor/VPN blocking in relation to security but the purposes got crossed through the replies.

There are legitimate reasons for blocking Tor and VPNs, however doing so for security is not one of them. Bad actors may use Tor, they may use VPNs, they may also use previously compromised systems which could be on any type of connection, (data centre / home / office / whatever) anywhere in the world.

Equally, assuming your service is publicly available with no specific reason to block Tor/VPNs, legitimate users may also be on any of those connection types.

If malicious activity is observed, whether that’s manually or with an automatic mechanism, temporary IP blocking for that specific activity may make manual attacks more awkward and automated attacks require a larger and more complex bot network, potentially making your service less appealing as a target to actors with limited resources.

4 Likes