Cybercrime has become a major concern for all internet users. For web-based businesses, especially, cybercrime could mean the decline of a business should the attacker succeed in a full-fledged mass attack on their systems. Domain Name Systems are currently the most vulnerable parts of a business’ websites, with hackers using them for many malicious activities. Luckily, there are effective ways of preventing your website from falling victim to these attacks. Here are some of the most effective ways to track your DNS traffic for potential security threats.
Firewalls
Firewalls are among the most effective ways to monitor DNS traffic for potential security threats. Enforcement of your firewall is an important factor towards avoiding cyber-attacks. Firewalls can help in traffic inspection so that byte patterns that look suspicious or irregular traffic is noted and dealt with as soon as possible. IP spoofing can also be prevented on most firewalls by redefining the rules of the firewall.
Intrusion Detection Systems
Intrusion detection systems are instrumental in detecting and reporting requests from unauthorized servers and networks. They comprise a set of rules which is usually cross-checked for every network that sends a request. These can be merged with firewalls to help report suspicious clients while denying them access to your DNS.
Passive DNS replication
Passive DNS replication works by copying a log of activities from the DNS requests and responses onto a central database, where these logs are evaluated for any unusual activities or requests made to the domain in question. The communication here is usually between servers, so cache misses are all that need review. Server-to-server communication also poses fewer privacy risks which are an added advantage.
Traffic Analyzers
Traffic analyzers are pivotal in the tracking of malicious traffic within a network. They work through the interception and examination of data within a network. This analysis can continue even during live communication, which means that they can continually analyze data packets for your domain at all times, record and report any abnormal traffic patterns within the network for review as soon as it occurs.
Local Resolver Logging
Another ideal way of checking for potential security threats to your DNS is by using the resolver logs. These are communications between server and client. By enabling logging in your resolver, you can use other tools to collect and analyze the server logs. Logging in resolvers are an easy way to detect common malware domains as well and prevent attacks from them long before they happen.