In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission received more than 2.1 million fraud reports. This led to consumers losing more than $3.3 billion to fraud, which is up considerably from $1.8 billion in 2019.
At the top of the fraud list is imposter scams, followed by fraud reported by consumers, internet services, and telephone and mobile services.
Fortifying Security: Your Gatekeeper to Stopping Ransomware
What the data has revealed is that you can’t be too careful as to how you protect yourself, especially every day on your computer. If you’re shopping and/or sharing your personal information online, you are a prime target for fraud.
Before you can protect yourself, it’s important you understand the types of attacks to which your computer is most vulnerable. These include malware, ransomware, DDoS, phishing, DNS spoofing, and more.
For this article, we’ll be diving into server-side DNS malware spoofing and its dangers, but before we do let’s first understand what the DNS is.
DNS stands for Domain Name System, which works behind the scenes and translates a website name into the ‘internet protocol’ (IP) address (similar to a phone number) of the server handling that website. For example, www.Facebook.com is the DNS name for Facebook which translates to the IP address of the server that you connect to from your device.
Unfortunately, there are some shady characters out there who have figured out how to ‘spoof’ a DNS name to point to a malware site server instead of the real one.
You may see a link to a specific website and think you’re headed there, but spoofing sees an attacker replace the DNS values with fake ones, and before you know it, you’re taken to a site that can steal your personal information.
You may think sharing your name, address, and credit card information in exchange for a product you’ve been wanting to buy, but instead you’re giving it to a scammer who wants to steal your money. DNS Protection reduces your exposure to online risks by automatically blocking malicious websites.
Also, especially as so much of shopping is done online via the digital transformation resulting from COVID-19 it’s extremely important that all IT solutions are safe when it comes to consumers sharing and saving their credit cards. Whether they are purchasing groceries, technology products, furniture or whatever they might buy online.
The list is endless.
You can protect your system with anti-virus software but specialized DNS solutions represents an additional first-layer of defense, preventing you from landing at a malicious website while improving your privacy at the same time.
ITechnology Interview with Edward Barrow, VP Product Strategy at Optimizely
Bottom line having a safe and IT solution that is safe, well tested will not only make browsing the web faster but it’ll make consumers feel safe.
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]
