What is a malicious domain? Domain names used for illicit purposes such as phishing website, distribute malware or other types of cybercrime; in fact, our recent research shows that many users access an average of about 5,000 queries per day, and 1 in 1,000 queries are likely to be malicious. This adds up to an average of approximately 1,825 malicious queries per user per year.
Malicious domains continue to pose a growing risk to organizations of all types, and the Domain Name System (DNS) layer remains a key vector for cybercriminals. The good news is that even amidst these trends, there are steps security professionals can take to better protect themselves.
How attackers use malicious domains
DNS's ubiquity and proximity to endpoints makes it an important attack vector for malicious actors. But too often, organizations fail to monitor it closely. The lack of a protective DNS is a big problem because malicious attackers can exploit malicious domains in a variety of ways. Although not a complete list, some of the most common methods include:
- Malware: Malicious domains are often used to distribute malwareIContains ransomware. Malware distributed throughThese domains can compromise the security of an organization's entire network, ultimately leading to the theft of sensitive data or complete loss of access to critical resources.
- Command and control by malicious actors: In this case, the DNS infrastructure is exploited to A remote covert channel between a compromised host and an attacker's server.that server teeth A command hub for coordinating and controlling the operation of compromised systems.
- Phishing: In this social engineering attack, a malicious attacker attempts to: deceive expose the user Sensitive information is often sent through websites that imitate legitimate products and services.. Attackers often seek login credentials, personal identification information, or financial information such as credit card numbers through phishing. These malicious domains are often distributed through email..
- Malvertising: This tactic involves injecting malicious code into ads and then distributing them through legitimate advertising channels.
- Typosquatting: Malicious actors often register domains with intentionally misspelled names of well-known legitimate sites (for example, Nikke.com instead of Nike.com). More sophisticated imitations rely on similar glyphs of foreign language alphabets.s. Once there, unsuspecting individuals are tricked into sharing personal information such as login credentials and credit card information.
Malicious domains seen in the real world
Malicious domains pose a serious threat to organizations and individuals. Some people simply don't care about computer security; Other users are “power users” who encounter more threats than the average user because they are exposed to more dangers across a wider range of the Internet.
Our researchers observed a 1,250% year-over-year increase in malicious domains. domain Registered within the last 24 hours. And, as almost every industry expert predicts, ChatGPT-Created Malicious domains are on the rise. According to our research, the popularity of ChatGPT has led scammers to use his OpenAI chatbot name on malicious domains.we have seen 6x increase in blocked domains related to ChatGPT and OpenAI Among our customer base.
What is Malicious Domain Protection M?will be for you
There is no “single screen” solution to p.Protection from malicious domains. A multi-layered approach is needed that can incorporate multiple dimensions. malicious actor' Action. Multiple perspectives are necessary to obtain The highest degree of protection.
meanwhile,Here we introduce threat feed vendors that sell up-to-date lists of malicious domains and malicious IP addresses. These lists vary in freshness and quality. If a vendor does not have access to malware samples that generate their own unique domains, those domains will not appear in the list.
Machi learning solutions can fill that gap because they Generalize beyond just what's in your feed. machine learning products Look for patterns of behavior that exist in your domain strings or emerge over time. or appear in a pattern of relationships between domain names and IP addresses.. for example, of Patterns of relationships between domains can be highly variable Information about security risks. So you might see a set of three domains that all tend to be queried together. If the response to the third domain turns out to be malicious, we can deduce that the first and her second domain may be malicious as well. This may seem like a simple example, butIn large networks of tens or thousands of domains and thousands of IP addresses, machine learning technology can block malicious domains at scale.
There are benefits to choosing Protective DNS solution take advantage of new things machine learning Features that help with identification malicious domain. ML makes a difference. You can identify more threats, such as cryptojacking, phishing, ransomware, botnets, and other spam domains, and catch them faster than humans.
Eliminate malicious domains
of A 1,250% year-over-year increase in “very new” malicious domains is not a statistic to ignore. Attackers are using AI and other techniques to lure unsuspecting individuals into information theft schemes. Organizations should then use the following features: Artificial intelligence and machine learning Detect malicious domains faster than humans alone. machine learning Detect more patterns of malicious behavior (acr)Covers all threat categoriesand it will be done faster.Protected DNS solution using machine learning Set up your organization of path to Higher security.
Will Strafach is Director of Security Intelligence and Solutions at DNSFilter.