Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated in their attacks.<\/p>\n
The Domain Name System (DNS) serves as a website’s identity and is the core component of its security architecture.<\/p>\n
Unless your website has the appropriate DNS monitoring in place, there’s no reason why you cannot become a cybercriminal’s next victim.<\/p>\n
We are offering informative tips on how to prevent security threats.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, cybercriminals will target a vulnerable internet service or protocol, including a website’s DNS.<\/p>\n
They can then register disposable domain names for a spam campaign or botnet administration.<\/p>\n
What’s more, an attacker could use the domains to host malware or phishing downloads.<\/p>\n
Malicious queries can also exploit a nameserver or disrupt a name solution.<\/p>\n
Sadly, the cyber-attacks can potentially destroy a website’s performance, function, and reputation.<\/p>\n
The servers of Dyn are a perfect example.<\/p>\n
The company controls some of the internet’s DNS infrastructure. It experienced a cyber attack that brought down much of America and Europe’s internet on October 21st, 2016.<\/p>\n
The new Mirai botnet attack has been classed as the largest kind in its history<\/a>.<\/p>\n A variety of high-profile websites experienced a\u00a0downtime, such as Twitter, The Guardian, CNN, Netflix, and Reddit.<\/p>\n While it may be a feat to prevent every potential DNS threat affecting a website, it’s essential to take action to avoid falling victim to a cyber attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n More than a quarter of companies haven’t established responsibility for their DNS security, despite the fact DNS attacks have increased by more than 200%<\/a>.<\/p>\n To prevent a\u00a0website from becoming a cyber attack target, you must embark with regular DNS monitoring.<\/p>\n A DNS log monitors every connection your website makes with a visiting device.<\/p>\n To maintain website security, it’s essential to embark with DNS monitoring to inspect the traffic between a device and your local recursive resolver.<\/p>\n The forensic analysis can ensure you:<\/p>\n When analyzing the DNS log, it’s essential to verify each domain against the DGA and malicious domain database.<\/p>\n If you’re unsure of where to start with DNS Monitoring, we’re offering six security systems to help you proactively protect your website.<\/p>\n Firewalls have the potential to expose DNS threats, so they’re an effective tool for DNS monitoring.<\/p>\n Most firewalls will allow webmasters to define rules to prevent IP spoofing<\/a>.<\/p>\n For example, you could enter a rule that denies DNS queries from IP addresses outside an allocated number space. This could prevent a nameserver from exploitation in a DDoS attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s also beneficial to enable DNS traffic inspection for suspicious byte patterns or irregular DNS traffic, so you can take the steps to block a nameserver software exploit attack.<\/p>\n One of the best ways to identify harmful malware traffic is a passive traffic analysis.<\/p>\n A traffic analyzer will allow you to both capture and filter DNS traffic between a device and your local recursive resolver, which you can then save to a PCAP file.<\/p>\n Webmasters must create scripts to search the PCAP file to identify specific suspicious activities.<\/p>\n Passive DNS replication allows a webmaster to use sensors at the local recursive resolvers.<\/p>\n This creates a database containing each DNS transaction, such as the query or response, through a resolver or set of resolvers.<\/p>\n The replication can be instrumental in identifying one or more malware domains, particularly in cases when the malware operates algorithmically generated domain names (AGDA).<\/p>\n An effective intrusion detection system allows you to create rules that allow reporting on DNS requests from unauthorized networks.<\/p>\n It is beneficial to compose rules to either count or report:<\/p>\n All DNS queries should be carefully reviewed.<\/p>\n The intrusion detection systems can be integrated into firewalls, which will allow you to deny or permit rules for many of the checks listed above.<\/p>\n Your local resolver logs are probably the most obvious and essential way to embark with DNS monitoring.<\/p>\n By enabling resolver logging, you can use a variety of tools to collect DNS server logs whilst exploring known malicious domains, such as OSSEC.<\/p>\n Most websites are registered via a registrar company.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, if a cyber-attacker can compromise the account with the registrar, they can gain control over your domain name.<\/p>\n This means they can point the registrar to their chosen server, including their nameservers.<\/p>\n What’s more, they can transfer the domain to either a new owner or an offshore registrar – which means you might be unable to recover the domain.<\/p>\n Many intelligent cyber attackers may target an account’s password, or they may even launch a cyber attack on the registrar’s tech support.<\/p>\n You’ll want to avoid registrar hijacking, so you should select a registrar that provides heightened security precautions.<\/p>\n Look for services like multi-factor authentication.<\/p>\n It is important to pay close attention to any potential signs of malicious activity on your network.<\/p>\n We recommend analyzing the composition characteristics and length of DNS responses. This could help to identify malicious intent.<\/p>\n If the response messages are unusually large, this could be an amplification attack.<\/p>\n You should also review the answer or additional sections of the response message, which could be a sign of cache poisoning.<\/p>\n The biggest risk to a website is ignorance, which will not be bliss when you suffer a cyber attack.<\/p>\n There are various forms of DNS monitoring that will allow you to expose threats and keep your website secure<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is up to a website admin to determine the right strategy to detect suspicious or malicious activity on your network.<\/p>\n While DNS monitoring doesn’t sound like a fun thing to do, it is essential for the security of your website.<\/p>\nWhy DNS Monitoring?<\/h2>\n
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1. Firewalls<\/h2>\n
2. Traffic Analyzers<\/h2>\n
3. Passive DNS Replication<\/h2>\n
4. Intrusion Detection Systems<\/h2>\n
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5. DNS Monitoring with Local Resolver Logs<\/h2>\n
6. A Secure Registrar<\/h2>\n
Suspicious Signs to Analyze<\/h2>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n