Proxy | Definition of Proxy by Merriam-Webster
\ ˈpräk-sē
\
1: a person who is given the power or authority to do something (such as to vote) for someone else
Since I wouldn’t be available to vote, I nominated him to act as my proxy.
2: power or authority that is given to allow a person to act for someone else
1: the agency, function, or office of a deputy who acts as a substitute for another
2a: authority or power to act for another
b: a document giving such authority
specifically: a power of attorney authorizing a specified person to vote corporate stock
3: a person authorized to act for another: procurator
Proxy Definition – Investopedia
What Is a Proxy?
A proxy is an agent legally authorized to act on behalf of another party or a format that allows an investor to vote without being physically present at the meeting. Shareholders not attending a company’s annual general meeting (AGM) may vote their shares by proxy by allowing someone else to cast votes on their behalf, or they may vote by mail.
Key Takeaways
A proxy is an agent legally authorized to act on behalf of another proxy may also allow an investor to vote without being physically present at the annual shareholder’s nagement ensures ownership interests are fully represented by encouraging shareholders who are unable to attend annual meetings to vote by proxy. A Proxy Statement is a packet of documents containing information necessary to make informed votes on issues facing the company.
How Does a Proxy Work?
While proxy voting is often an option, management encourages shareholders to vote in person. If the shareholder cannot attend, voting by proxy is another option. For a person to act as a proxy for an individual, formal documentation may be required that outlines the extent to which the proxy can speak on the individual’s behalf. A formal power of attorney document may be required to provide the permissions to complete certain actions. The shareholder signs a power of attorney and extends official authorization to the designated individual to vote on behalf of the stated shareholder at the annual meeting.
A proxy cannot vote if the shareholder arrives late and decides to vote for their own self.
Proxy Statements
Before the annual shareholder meeting, all shareholders receive a packet of information containing the Proxy Statement. The proxy documents provide shareholders with the information necessary to make informed votes on issues important to the company’s performance. A Proxy statement offers shareholders and prospective investors insight into a company’s governance and management operations. The proxy discloses important information on agenda items for the annual meeting, lists the qualifications of management and board members, serves as a ballot for elections to the board of directors, lists the largest shareholders of a company’s stock, and provides detailed information about executive compensation. There are also proposals from management and shareholders.
Proxy statements must be filed with regulatory authorities, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States, on an annual basis before the company’s annual meeting.
When voting by proxy remotely, shareholders may be eligible to vote by mail, phone, or internet. Shareholders use the information in the proxy statements to aid in the decision-making process.
Anyone can look up a public company’s proxy statement via the SEC website under the name “DEF 14A. ”
Benefits of Proxy
Management ensures that ownership interests are fully represented by often encouraging shareholders that are unable to attend annual meetings to vote by proxy. Information presented during annual meetings often affects the future direction of the company, which can directly impact the value of a shareholder’s stake in the company.
Real World Example of a Proxy
Below is a portion of the proxy materials for the annual shareholders’ meeting of Corning Inc. in 2016.
The corporation’s assigned proxy is highlighted in blue showing that the shareholder’s vote can be cast by the noted in the bolded statement, if no choices are made, the nominated members of the board will be voted for by the proxy.
Example of Proxy for Corning Inc.
Investopedia
Proxy Card
Below is the Proxy Card showing the specific board members that were to be voted on as well as some of the proposals by management. If the shareholder wanted to vote, the proxy card could be mailed to the corporation.
Example of Proxy Card from Corning Inc. 2016 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting.
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Corning Inc. “Annual Meeting Proxy Card, ” Page 1&2. Accessed Aug. 26, 2020.
What’s The Difference Between a Proxy and a VPN? – Varonis
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If you’re security conscious, you might be thinking about setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or a proxy server.
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Proxy and VPN Defined
Both VPNs and proxies enable a higher degree of privacy than you might otherwise have, allowing you to access the internet anonymously by hiding your IP in various ways. But how they do that is quite different.
A proxy acts as a gateway – it’s ideal for basic functions like anonymous web browsing and managing (or circumventing) content restrictions. Proxy servers excel at IP masking and misdirection, making them good for viewing geographically limited content. They allow users to bypass content restrictions and monitoring, or enforce website content restrictions – so that you can’t log into certain web pages on company time.
A VPN client on your computer establishes a secure tunnel with the VPN server, replacing your local ISP routing. VPN connections encrypt and secure all of your network traffic, not just the HTTP or SOCKS calls from your browser like a proxy server.
VPNs are great when you need to use the WIFI at a local coffee shop: using a VPN instead of the potentially completely unencrypted local WIFI adds another layer of privacy – who knows who is lurking on that network, just sitting in the corner sipping coffee and waiting to steal your credit card digits?
Proxy and VPN Drawbacks
If you’re using proxy servers to mask your internet activity, you might see performance issues that prevent you from streaming or downloading the thing you are trying to get. High ping times and other traffic on the proxy server can cause web pages to load slowly. For this reason, some users pay for a private proxy server which limits the number of users that access it, speeding up your connections.
Proxies are also vulnerable to security exploits: they can be open to attack, allowing the bad guys to infiltrate networks or steal private data. Some proxies can still track (and store) your browsing habits, as well as recording usernames and passwords – rendering that promise of anonymity null.
VPNs can also suffer from performance issues, depending on proximity to the VPN server you’re connecting with. VPNs use a local client to create the connection to the VPN server, so any local CPU or memory issues will slow down the connections. VPNs are typically more expensive to use (and maintain) than a proxy server, and they are often more complex to manage.
Just like proxy servers, VPNs can’t guarantee anonymity while browsing. Neither of these services will always encrypt your traffic all the way to the web server. A VPN only guarantees an end-to-end encrypted connection if you use the HTTPS protocol when you go to a new web address. Your data will be encrypted to the VPN, but from that point on, it could be unencrypted to the web server. For some sites, this may be irrelevant: an information-only webpage with no login or payment options for example, but for any sites that require a login or online payments – or any sensitive data – make sure the website is enabled to use HTTPS. Remember, the S stands for moderately more secure.
Proxy and VPN Benefits
The biggest argument to use a VPN instead of a proxy is the total encryption for all traffic you get with the VPN. Dollar for dollar, a VPN is more secure than a similarly priced proxy. VPN providers maintain their own networks and you use their IP addresses for your connections. The top VPN providers advertise a logless policy, which means they don’t have data to provide to anyone about your browsing habits.
If you’re an IT business owner charged with the security of data and users, there are advantages to both, and you likely have both configured for your company. For users in the network, you might route traffic through a proxy server to log web traffic, protect the organization from malware or other attacks, and enforce a web content policy.
When users are operating out of the office, you will want to use a VPN to create a secure connection to access the company resources (email, internal shares, etc. ).
Proxy vs VPN: Which is Right for me?
Privacy and security matter these days, regardless of if it’s your company data or your own personal data you need to protect. Make sure you’re investing time and money into the correct tools for your security goals: both proxies and VPNs add an additional layer of security and privacy to your data.
If you want to enable your team to work remotely with secure access to the company resources, set up and maintain a VPN users to access the network with the VPN.
If your concerns are more around “what websites are my users hitting, ” a proxy server is a better tool.
To get the most bang for the buck (and to protect your data as a security-aware citizen), sign up for a well-regarded VPN service. For the most part, VPN services allow you to use servers in different locations to work around content restrictions. If you need to use a free proxy server occasionally for that purpose as well, just be aware of the risks.
If you’re just starting to implement your data security strategy on an enterprise level, there are more complex attack vectors to account for. Insider threats, APTs, privileged account escalations – along with plain old social engineering – are just as dangerous to your data as an unencrypted data stream.
Neither a proxy nor a VPN will protect you from 100% of the cybersecurity threats your company will encounter: they won’t stop an insider from stealing personal data, a ransomware attack, or a coordinated infiltration effort.
Varonis Edge adds perimeter telemetry to security analytics – monitoring proxy, VPN, and DNS to help bridge that gap: you’ll be able to see when an attacker breaks through a VPN, get alerts when sensitive data is uploaded to external websites, more. See how it works with a 1:1 demo – and discover how Varonis helps secure your data from perimeter attacks.
Frequently Asked Questions about proxy def
What does it mean to be a proxy to someone?
1 : a person who is given the power or authority to do something (such as to vote) for someone else Since I wouldn’t be available to vote, I nominated him to act as my proxy. 2 : power or authority that is given to allow a person to act for someone else.
What proxy means?
1. Proxy is a stand-in for someone else, the authority to stand-in for or represent someone else, or a document giving permission for someone else to vote on your behalf. An example of proxy is someone who is named to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to do so.
What is a proxy in financial terms?
A proxy is an agent legally authorized to act on behalf of another party. The proxy may also allow an investor to vote without being physically present at the annual shareholder’s meeting.