Only A Third Of Firms Are Prepared For DNS Security Threats, Study Says

Having a functioning domain name service (DNS) is similar to breathing air: Cut it off, and “all business and revenue comes to a grinding halt,” warns the digital security firm Infobox. That includes email marketing.

Yet many firms are unprepared for this threat. In a survey of 2,004 security and IT professionals, InfoBox found that almost two-thirds of companies cannot defend themselves against all common DNS attacks.

What’s more, one third have little confidence in their firms’ ability to defend themselves. Slightly more say they have a reactive security strategy. 

Yet there’s plenty to defend against, judging by this report. For example, 31% of the surveyed firms have been the victims of DNS attacks. And these assaults have cost money.

According to Infobox, 54% of the victims lost $50,000 or more due to an attack. Another 24% have lost at least $100,000.

And almost all victims have suffered downtime -- 43% up to an hour and 30% from one to eight hours. An unlucky 4% have been down for more than one day.

Why is this happening?

For one thing, 22% of companies don’t have a backup DNS service. And only 11% have a dedicated security team to manage DNS, 52% relying on IT infrastructure and 37% on IT operations people.

In addition, it makes no difference what kind of DNS service providers they employ: 32% of cloud users have been hit, along with 34% of those who use third-party services and 30% of those who handle it onsite.

The good news is that companies quickly wise up after being attacked. DNS security has become the top security focus for 70%.

Firms that have not suffered a hit rely more on antivirus monitoring. They also utilize endpoint monitoring.

Companies even react to attacks on other companies. For instance, 37% changed their security policy in the wake of the attack on the DNS provider Dyn last year.

The solution? Give DNS specialists a seat at the security table. And make DNS a core component of your security strategy, Infobox urges. 

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