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Showing posts from November, 2018

Your domain by any other name

Your domain name represents your identity on the Internet. Customers, prospects, associates, and generally anyone on the Internet can navigate to your website simply by knowing your domain name. The domain name system (DNS) facilitates this naming process by enabling the resolution of your site's name to Internet Protocol addresses that devices use to connect to your website over the Internet. While DNS simplifies navigation to your Internet presence thanks to your domain name, it also introduces an exposure to visual misrepresentations of your domain name in the DNS and therefore on the Internet. Such misrepresentations may be totally innocent, such as when would-be visitors "fat finger" or mistype your web address in their browsers leading them to another website, or downright malicious where a miscreant creates a website reachable by a visually similar or slight variation in your domain name. Such a malicious website could be designed to visually appear similar to

DNS security battlecard

Need a quick summary of essential DNS security measures on a single page? I've published a DNS Security Battlecard just for you. My intention is to "net out" the key measures you should consider to better secure your DNS and thereby better secure your overall network. The battlecard summarizes, for each DNS server role, various controls you can implement related to deployment, routing controls, server controls and DNS application/protocol controls. Beyond the network and server level controls highlighted in the battlecard, please do not forget the human element of security that pervades all DNS server roles. This includes developing and enforcing an organizational security policy, incorporating security functions and requirements into staff job descriptions, staffing of personnel with appropriate job-specific skill sets, regular training of security policies and controls, and periodic auditing of staff activities. Other enterprise-wide security considerations include