This Saturday marks a year since the DDoS attack on Dyn which disrupted internet services for hundreds of companies, including online giants Twitter, Amazon, AirBnB, and Spotify. Dr. Malcolm Murphy, Chief of Staff EMEA at Infoblox commented below.
Dr. Malcolm Murphy, Chief of Staff EMEA at Infoblox:
“Last year’s DDoS attack on Dyn underscored the fact that the domain name server, or DNS, remains extremely vulnerable. DNS is the one of the most critical services in organisation’s infrastructure and without it almost all business applications and services are unreachable, bringing a business to a grinding halt and impacting revenue, brand, reputation and customer satisfaction.
“Last year’s Dyn attack was a wake-up call to many companies, with 37 percent changing their DNS security strategy in its wake according to a recent survey. Despite this, however, nearly a third of professionals have doubts that their company could defend against the next DNS-based attack, suggesting DNS security is still not as high a priority as it should be. Indeed, nine out of 10 organisations suffered downtime as a result of their most recent DNS attack.
“Most organisations regard DNS as simply plumbing rather than critical infrastructure that requires active defence. Unfortunately, even on the anniversary of the enormous DDoS attack against Dyn, most companies still neglect DNS security. Our approach to cybersecurity needs a fundamental shift: if we don’t start giving DNS security the attention it deserves, DNS will continue to be exposed and exploited, and we’ll continue to see events like last year’s attack.”
