Although ransomware and phishing attempts are often perceived as the most frequent and persistent cyber threats by many, a new survey by the Neustar International Security Council (NISC), however, shows that domain name system (DNS) attacks are impacting businesses at an increasing rate. According to the survey, which was conducted in September 2021, 72 percent of respondents experienced a DNS attack within the last year. Among the targeted respondents, 58 percent experienced business disruptions that lasted more than an hour and 14 percent took several hours to recover.

DNS attacks, which are not new, involve an adversary taking advantage of vulnerabilities in the DNS protocol. DNS attacks can include DNS hijacking, cache poisoning, and denial of service (DOS) attacks among others. Based on the survey, DNS attacks appear to be on an upward trend this year. To protect against DNS attacks, “organizations need to continuously analyze the DNS traffic leaving their organization, make sure they maintain good hygiene and access controls for DNS related accounts, and, most importantly, implement [Domain Name System Security Extensions] DNSSEC,” according to Michael Kaczmarek, VP of product management for Neustar Security Solutions. Read more at HelpNetSecurity.