The Internet is made up of a large number of protocols, technologies, information and means to access. There are many factors necessary for a user to connect to the network. One of them is the Domain Name System or better known as DNS. It is basic for the Internet. Basically, what it allows is to associate IP addresses with an assigned domain name. One way we can memorize words (the addresses of the pages we visit) before a series of numbers (that IP address). In this article we will see what DNS filtering consists of and why it can be interesting.
DNS can be attacked
We have seen that DNS is a fundamental piece for our day to day. They make it easier for us to surf the Internet. However, this dependency can also generate security problems. DNS can be attacked by hackers and compromise the security and privacy of users.
How could DNS be attacked? For example through denial of service attacks, cache poisoning, etc. They can be used to carry out a series of attacks that harm us.
It is logical to think that hackers can use DNS to attack . After all, as we have mentioned, it is very present in the network. Many platforms and applications depend on this protocol to function.
What is DNS filtering
Although there are many types of malware and network security problems, luckily we also have a wide variety of tools to protect us. An example is DNS filtering, which we can use to avoid security risks such as those mentioned above.
Thanks to DNS filtering we can avoid having to block many sites that may be legitimate. What we really do is focus on those that may be a real threat. It is a more accurate option than IP filtering, which allows you to block a single address that spans multiple sites, as well as URL-based filtering. We can say that the DNS is in the middle of those two methods.
As an example, there are four domain names (DNS) assigned to the same IP address. If we block that IP we would be blocking those four DNS. Now, only one of the four may really be a danger. That is why it is a more accurate blocking method.
DNS filtering blocks connections to malicious links regardless of which application initiates the connection. This means that it doesn’t matter if we try to access a malicious link through the email application or from a text program, for example.
In short, we can say that DNS filtering is a technique to block access to certain websites or IP addresses. This means that when the DNS server returns the address directly, this process will be subject to certain controls. For example, if we know that a particular address is malicious, that filtering would prevent us from accessing. A way to protect us from malware and threats that may compromise our security when browsing the Internet. We can also block access to certain categories of pages we want.
Mind you, keep in mind that DNS filtering is not the definitive solution . That is, it will not block all malicious pages. It will be subject to a blacklist of those sites recognized as a potential threat. Therefore, users who opt for DNS filtering also need to use other additional measures to really ensure their security.
It should also be noted that DNS filtering is something that can be exploited by both private users and companies. Mainly businesses usually use more security measures of this type to protect themselves from possible external threats that put the systems at risk.
