How-to
Naming and Annotating Networks
Who a network really is beyond its registered name, and how your team can pin its own alias, note and tags on any ASN.
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Why a network needs more than its registered name
The name a network registers with is often not the brand you'd recognise. AS209854 is registered to "Cyberzone S.A." in Panama, but it operates as Surfshark, part of Nord Security. Knowing that changes how you treat its traffic: it's a consumer VPN with real shoppers behind it, not an anonymous hosting network. Edge captures this identity in two layers so the right context is on screen when you're deciding what to do.
The shared directory (identity for everyone)
Every network's detail page shows a Network identity panel drawn from Blankitt's shared directory. Where we know it, this carries:
- the brand behind the registered holder (e.g. "Surfshark"),
- its parent company or group (e.g. "Nord Security"),
- a short note on what the network is and how to treat it,
- a source link so you can check the provenance.
This is curated centrally and kept current, so you benefit from it without doing anything. The brand also appears as a chip next to the network name at the top of the page.
Your team's own notes
Below the shared identity, anyone on your team with the analyst role or above can add your own annotation to any network:
- an alias — how your team wants this network labelled ("Surfshark — our VPN shoppers"),
- a free-text note — what you've learned ("real orders come through here, challenge but never block"),
- tags — short labels for filtering and recognition (
partner,known-scraper,do-not-block).
To add one, open the network's detail page from Offenders and click Add note on the Network identity panel. Notes are team-synced: once you save, every colleague sees them, on every device. Viewers can read notes but not edit them.
What notes do and don't do
Notes and directory identity are display-only. They put context on screen; they never change a detector threshold, and they never apply or remove a rule. Labelling a network "do-not-block" is a note to your team, not an instruction to the system. Deciding what actually happens to that network's traffic is always a separate, deliberate action on the Protections and alert surfaces.
Getting an identity added to the shared directory
If a network's brand is missing or wrong in the shared directory, tell us and we'll review and add it. The shared directory is curated with a review step, so a correction helps every Edge customer, not just your account. In the meantime, your own team note covers it immediately.