Criminals aren’t neglecting your DNS

6th December 2018


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Too many businesses are falling foul of cyber criminals. Phishing scams and ransomware attacks dominate the headlines. Data breaches have become the norm among the most powerful and prominent businesses across all industries. Marriott, Cathay Pacific, FIFA and HSBC are just some of the most recent companies grappling with security incidents that have compromised sensitive data.

With the best will in the world, CISOs and their security teams are overworked and struggling with limited staff and tight budgets as they strive to keep data safe. Unfortunately, this means that good business intentions to make cyber resilience a priority are impeding the opportunity to win against criminals from the outset. This is an increasingly serious issue, as foreign actors ramp up their cyber warfare, threatening everything from customer trust to the security of our country’s critical national infrastructure.

Nominet has always placed cyber security at the heart of our operations, conscious that we take responsibility for running a core element of the UK’s internet infrastructure, the .UK domain. Our skilled in-house team focuses their efforts on maintaining the security of the domain name system (DNS), creating tools and analytics that enable us to observe and mitigate attacks by pinpointing suspicious activity.

The DNS is a goldmine of intelligence, but only if you know what to look for. Criminals are drawn to what has become known as the ‘backdoor’ into business systems, able to slip unseen within the massive amount of daily activity across this integral part of the organisation’s network.

Malicious actors use DNS for a range of attacks, including malware communications, data exfiltration and targeted phishing. Each one of these leaves a tell-tale sign of activity – the very early warning signs of an attack – that can be seen and acted upon with the right technology. Too many businesses don’t have the tools in place to spot these breaches, so criminal behaviour continues to go undetected.

At Nominet we have been turbo charging our cyber offering to ensure all companies have access to actionable intelligence. This is driven by a Cyber Security Division, staffed by our analytics experts and product teams, and supported by a new Cyber Advisory Panel. Our collective aim is to spread the word about the power of the DNS and the tools available to support stretched cyber teams and boost cyber resilience.

The process has already begun. Our proven technology – known collectively as the NTX Platform – is already helping to keep Government networks safe as part of their Active Cyber Defence programme. We are confident that corporate cyber teams can benefit from similar support in this endless battle against criminal activity and infiltration.

Information is power, and the DNS can provide it. With Nominet’s patented analytics using machine learning to look into patterns on your networks, there’s no logic in overlooking the potential of this rich data stream, or failing to tap into this source of actionable intelligence. If you lack the tools, seek them out and ensure your organisation is utilising one of the most crucial aspects of the network – DNS threat detection and prevention. Criminals aren’t neglecting your DNS, so neither should you.

Read more about Nominet Cyber Security Services.