Awareness on DNS Security

DNS (Domain Name System) is a critical component of the internet infrastructure, responsible for translating human-readable domain names into machine-readable IP addresses. However, it's also exploited by cybercriminals for various malicious activities, including malware distribution, phishing attacks, and command-and-control communication for botnets.

A report says that “since most organisations don’t bother to secure the DNS layer, they might be missing opportunities to block cyberattacks. The increasing volume of DNS requests daily indeed presents a significant challenge in terms of cybersecurity. As per Cisco they resolve 620 billion DNS requests daily.

Cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in DNS protocols and implementations to launch attacks such as DNS spoofing, DNS hijacking, and DNS tunnelling. These attacks can lead to unauthorized access, data exfiltration, and service disruption.

Malicious actors often use DNS as a means to distribute malware by redirecting users to malicious websites or hosting malware payloads on compromised domains. This can lead to the installation of ransomware, spyware, or other forms of malware on users' devices.

DNS is leveraged in phishing attacks to deceive users into visiting fraudulent websites that impersonate legitimate entities. By registering domain names similar to well-known brands or organizations, attackers can trick users into divulging sensitive information or downloading malicious content.

DNS is commonly used as a communication channel for botnets, allowing attackers to control compromised devices remotely. By issuing commands and receiving instructions via DNS requests, cybercriminals can orchestrate various malicious activities, including DDoS attacks, data theft, and cryptocurrency mining.

Attackers exploit misconfigured DNS servers to amplify and reflect malicious traffic, leading to large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. By sending spoofed DNS queries to open resolvers, attackers can overwhelm the target's network infrastructure with an amplified response, disrupting services and causing downtime.

A report says, 1 in 3 breaches could have been contained by DNS. In the same report it has also been conclusively proved that billions of dollars in major losses could have been prevented by DNS-layer security. It is a reality that quite a few of the sophisticated attacks rely on DNS level security. This report is turning out to be an eyeopener for the cyber security world.

So, enterprises must understand that DNS Security gives a major boost to overall cyber security stance.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA