DNS threats expected to surge over the holidays

With more people shopping online than ever before, 78 percent of cybersecurity professionals say they expect to see an increase in DNS-related security threats over the next month.

This is according to a new report from information services and technology company Neustar's International Security Council which also finds that 59 percent have altered their DNS security methods in the run up to the holiday season.

In spite of these preparations 29 percent admit to having reservations about their ability to respond to DNS attacks, these can be largely attributed to the shifting and complex DNS threat landscape. Of the range of DNS threats that exist today, the cybersecurity community ranks domain hijacking (41 percent) as its top concern and the attack businesses are most likely to fall victim to, followed by DNS spoofing/cache poisoning (28 percent), DNS tunneling (16 percent) and zombie domain attacks (15 percent). In fact, three in five respondents confess to being hit by one of these threats in the past year.

"Acting as the Internet's address book and backbone of today's digital services, it’s unsurprising that DNS is an increasingly appealing vector for malicious actors, particularly as more consumers turn to websites during peak online shopping periods," says Rodney Joffe, chairman of NISC, SVP and fellow at Neustar. "When successful, DNS attacks can have damaging repercussions to an organization's online presence, brand and reputation. A domain hijacking attack, for example, can result in hackers taking control of a company's domain and using it to host malware or launch phishing campaigns that evade spam filters and other reputational protections. In a worst-case scenario, this type of attack can even lead to an organization losing its domain altogether."

You can find out more on the NISC site.

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