The Domain Name System (DNS) is the underlying fabric that connects almost every gadget, service and endpoint in a company. And depending on how you manage your DNS landscape, it might be your IT security team’s guardian angel or when poorly managed your worst nightmare.
When responsibly taken care of, DNS will be your network’s strongest line of defense against cyber threats. That’s why DNS web filtering has become a must-have for businesses of any size. Too often taken for granted as a way-to-simple solution, DNS management and filtering can be leveraged to protect assets by slamming the door shut to a multitude of threats. Simply put, it restricts access to dangerous websites.
Implementing a DNS web filtering solution can prevent your corporate network on a number of fronts. Here, SafeDNS humbly presents a list of the most dangerous threats your company will most likely suffer from without proper DNS management and protection.
DNS Filtering and Malware
The biggest threat of them all is malware. Malicious sites may contain banners that, when clicked on, download dangerous content. However, searching the web for necessary software may end up in downloading and installing malicious or infected programs, ranging from simple viruses to crypto-ransomware. According to Capita’s report, 52% of data breach root causes are malicious attacks, and the average total cost for it is $4.27 million.
Putting the Kibosh on Phishing Attacks
Phishing sites pretending to be legitimate sites with the purpose of obtaining passwords from various resources, bank card data etc. are also very popular among cybercriminals. Without DNS web filtering you would need to be very cautious and closely investigate every website you access:
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- Check the URL
- Be aware of suspicious pop-ups that ask for personal information
- Evaluate the design of a website
With a quality web filtering solution, there would be no need to even take such concerns in mind – you simply cannot enter such resources and get phished. As Bolster claims in their Phishing and Online Fraud report, there are 6.9M phishing and scam pages in total and 19,000 new pages are created every day. For instance, one of the most popular phishing schemes was the Microsoft Defender scam, which tricked visitors into calling and actually purchasing tech support.
Just Say ‘No’ to Malicious Websites
Serious danger is posed by sites that do not require any interaction with the user other than the fact of referring to them. Such sites contain scripts that are automatically executed on the client side, i.e. on your computer or cell phone, and that result in the installation of spyware, bots and encryptors.
DNS Spoofing: Be Gone!
Another type of attack is DNS spoofing, which is also known as cache poisoning. If the computer takes data from the cache, it does not know whether the IP has been updated since the last time a particular web resource was visited or not. It means that when the computer maliciously changes the values in the cache, it simply uses a new value.
DNS spoofing is performed with the help of malicious software or by using software for malicious purposes (Ettercap, dns2proxy, SSLStrip+), as well as through direct access to the victim’s computer. As a result, intruders gain access to the DNS cache and find the right address.
Upping Your Security Game with a DNS Filtering Solution
A reliable DNS server is configured not to unconditionally accept a response from another unknown server but will make several checks until it is absolutely certain that there is no DNS-return attempt from that side. The reliability of the server actually equals the user’s confidence that all requests sent to them receive legitimate responses.
The big question is how to protect your company without leaving any paths for cybercriminals to follow and breach your data. The answer would be to use a multi-layered approach – DNS filtering should not be the only solution to use. Backup, firewalls, endpoint protection, passwords managers, cyber hygiene education – the list goes on. Generally, it is recommended to stick to the Zero trust approach: trust nothing internal or external of the corporate network.
SafeDNS servers will have your back in case of DNS spoofing aimed at your company. To stay on the safe side, try out the SafeDNS web filtering solution in your company for 15 days for free.
