Nowadays, managing online security is becoming a great challenge for every PC user. Tech geeks recommend installing DNSCrypt to ensure full DNS protection, but do you think that only a simple protocol can save you from such heinous threats? If you wish to adopt the latest security policies for preventing DNS attacks, then read the article below.

Business houses, workplaces, and other big organizations often deploy special data servers to ensure complete protection of their business plans and financial details. Sometimes a hacker may get successful in breaking the security shield and thus enter into business servers for stealing vital business, employee, and financial information. IT security experts secure DNS servers by deploying various programs that can help in making them safer and protected. Managing DNS security isn’t an easy task because the virtual world gets introduced to latest threats and infections, every hour. Stopping the cyber infections is not in your hand, but you can apply some preventive measures to avoid such threats or attacks.

Read this article to know what types of threats can infringe your DNS security and compromise your valuable information.

1. Basic NXDOMAIN Attack

It is a common cyber attack that aims at compromising the security of your Domain Name Servers (DNS) and slowing them down. The attacker may send too many queries to a DNS server that will command the platform to resolve a non-existent domain/domain name. The recursive server will then try to locate this non-existing domain and may stay busy for long. The recursive server will conduct various sessions to resolve multiple domain name queries but does not find it. The entire process may last for hours and end up filling the cache with NXDOMAIN results. The attack will result in sending delayed response for legitimate requests and may access valuable resources to get a resolution result.

2. Phantom Domain Attack

The ‘Phantom’ domains serve as a setup for other dangerous cyber attacks. In the entire process, the DNS resolver tries resolving queries from multiple domains, or phantom domains, and end up slowing down the speed of responses. The phantom domains may not send accurate responses on time, or they start causing slowness in the entire process. The attack may cause unnecessary waiting to get the exact query responses and even waste server resources. The end results of the attack will lead to downgraded performance or server failure.

3. Random Subdomain Attack

The attacks may violate the full DNS protection because the infected clients can generate queries by sending random subdomain strings. The victim domain may not be able to judge the strings and end up sending incorrect responses to the incoming queries. Every client will send a small volume of such queries to the DNS recursive server, and these queries are hard to detect for possible flaws. The attacks may result in keeping DNS recursive server responses on wait and exhaust the outstanding query limit. Since the responses may never come back, target domain’s authors may experience different kinds of DDoS attacks.

4. Domain Lock-Up Attack

Cyber attackers may install special resolvers and domains for establishing TCP-based connections that will redirect the user to malicious websites. In the entire process, the spoofed server will send random packets as the response to the queries sent by DNS resolver. The process will keep the resolvers engaged and results in a delay while sending responses to the requested queries. The attacks not only downgrade the performance of a server but also lock up its resources.

5. Botnet-Based Attacks From CPE Devices

The attackers use botnets for targeting all web traffic requests to one site or domain. The process involves compromised devices like CPE switches, routers, and many others, to infect viruses and malicious codes into your data-rich servers. The malware infected devices serve as a botnet to send multiple DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) traffic requests and end up connecting the user to rogue web pages. The attack will compromise the customer PCs and business IT environments, leading to exhausting the DNS resolver’s resources. The victim server will experience slowness in responses and may lead to SSL proxy and login credentials theft.

Conclusion

Since DNS attacks are uncertain, and they may hit your business environments anytime, it is better to employ full DNS protection by installing leading online protection tools. DNSCrypt is a popular tool that helps to authenticate DNS server requests and ensure that the responses don’t get tampered. It is the best way to secure DNS servers while connecting to external web sources. The tool is available for free, and you can download it from its official website.