Critical Threats Include Domain Name Fraud, Botnet Attack and IP Route Hijacking
DENVER – May 16, 2012 – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a call to action to ISPs and telecommunications companies to combat three major cybersecurity threats that have the potential to cause widespread disruption to communications and economic activity: Domain Name Server (DNS) Fraud, Botnet Attacks, and IP Route Hijacking. In response to this call to action, eight major service providers have agreed to adopt a set of recommended security initiatives outlined by an FCC advisory committee. Implementation of these recommended security initiatives is a significant step forward in securing the Internet but requires cost-effective software and hardware from technology suppliers. Secure64 Software Corporation’s suite of secure DNS products and technologies address each of the threats identified by the FCC and can be indispensible tools for organizations implementing the recommendations.
“Our products allow providers to address the major threats to online security and reduce the risk of threats like denial of service attacks at low cost, with no disruption to customers, and without compromising privacy,” said Steve Goodbarn, president of Secure64. “From the beginning, Secure64 has focused on providing commercial solutions that simplify DNS security. Our products—Secure64 DNS Signer (automated DNSSEC), DNS Cache, DNS Authority—and our recent co-authored proposal for preventing IP route hijacking (ROVER) provide critical capabilities that ISPs and telecommunications companies need to implement the FCC’s recommendations.”
Threat 1: Domain Name Server (DNS) Fraud
The FCC recommends that providers immediately implement Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) security-aware resolvers to prevent DNS fraud, at a minimum, and also recommends gradually enabling DNSSEC validation on resolvers over time. Secure64 DNS Cache is a security-aware caching resolver able to validate DNSSEC responses with higher levels of performance than other resolvers. Secure64 DNS Cache allows providers to:
- Increase performance and reduce costs by consolidating caching infrastructure
- Future-proof networks by providing the headroom to add new services without requiring new capital expenditures
- Protect DNS service and customers from downtime due to DDoS attacks against the DNS infrastructure
The FCC also recommends that key industry segments such as banking, credit cards and healthcare sign their domains with DNSSEC. Traditional methods of implementing DNSSEC are complex, painstaking and fraught with the potential for error, however Secure64 offers a solution that simplifies DNSSEC and ensures successful implementation. Secure64 DNS Signer is a secure DNSSEC software appliance that fully automates DNSSEC key generation, key rollover, zone signing and re-signing processes. Secure64 DNS Signer works with a company’s existing DNS infrastructure and automates all of the activities required to deploy DNSSEC, allowing an organization to:
- Implement DNSSEC in days, not months
- Reduce deployment and maintenance costs
- Retain the investment in existing DNS infrastructure
- Eliminate errors that can cause a domain to become unreachable
Threat 2: Botnet Attacks
One thing that many botnets and botnet attacks have in common is their use of DNS infrastructure. Almost all nefarious activity performed by an infected PC begins with a DNS query to servers maintained by ISPs and telecommunications companies. Botnet software that infects computers must use the DNS to find its command and control center, and malware is often distributed via email links that use the DNS to resolve the malicious domain name. Secure64 offers solutions that help ISPs and telecommunications companies secure their DNS infrastructure against mis-use by and attacks from botnets.
Secure64 DNS Authority and DNS Cache are authoritative and caching DNS software appliances that detect and mitigate high volume DDoS attacks without the need to overprovision servers. Third party tests have shown that these products can withstand DDoS attacks up to the saturation point of a gigabit Ethernet line with no loss of DNS availability. Secure64 DNS products allow companies to:
- Ensure the availability of the DNS even while under high volume DDoS attacks
- Eliminate the need to overprovision the DNS infrastructure
- Eliminate the need for dedicated network security equipment to protect the DNS
In addition, Secure64 DNS Cache combats botnets by allowing service providers to load one or more blacklists into the server so that queries for known botnet command and control centers can be detected, reported and blocked.
Secure64 also provides carriers with easy to use “genetic diversity” in their DNS by running on a different architecture than all other DNS servers. Over 80 percent of the world’s DNS servers rely on the same open source DNS, creating the potential for a global Internet meltdown in the event of a sophisticated attack or virus. Secure64 DNS Cache was recently named Best New Application of 2011 at the annual Mission-Critical Innovations Awards in Vienna Austria.
Threat 3: IP Route Hijacking
Secure64 is a co-author of a proposed novel solution to the route hijacking problem that was recently presented to the IETF. Route hijacking is the malicious or accidental re-directing of data traffic using the lack of security in routers, which are responsible for moving packets of data from point A to point B on the Internet. Malicious route hijacking can remove companies or even entire countries from the Internet, bringing business or an overall economy to a halt. A number of high-profile incidents of route hijacking have increased concern about this threat.
Secure64’s solution to the route hijacking threat is as elegantly simple as it is effective: The solution proposed to the IETF leverages current DNS infrastructure and records in conjunction with the use of DNSSEC to publish and verify ASN route origins. This methodology verifies routes as trustworthy, removing the threat of route origin hijacking in the process, and could be implemented immediately.
For more information about Secure64’s solutions for companies seeking to comply with the cybersecurity recommendations of the FCC, visit www.secure64.com/solutions.
About Secure64 Software Corporation
Headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, Secure64 is a software developer providing the most secure DNS products available to its customers in the government and communications industry. Secure64’s patented technology provides mission-critical security and reliability with high throughput and low latency. It has been shown to be immune to compromise from rootkits and malware and resistant to denial of service and other network attacks. The company offers a suite of trusted and secure DNS software appliances for caching, signing and authoritative use. Secure64’s products are sold and serviced worldwide through Hewlett-Packard and their reseller network and directly by Secure64. For more information, visit https://secure64.com.
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Secure64 Company Contact Press Contacts
Mark Beckett Karla Trippe
Vice President, Marketing Trippe & Company
Secure64 (970) 389-3672
(303) 242-5899 ktrippe@trippecompany.com
mark.beckett@secure64.com
Rich Miller
Trippe & Company
(303) 877-3966
rmiller@trippecompany.com
