Page 58 - Cyber Defense eMagazine for September 2020

Protecting a Mobile Workforce with Hybrid DNS Security

By Ashraf Sheet, Regional Director, Middle East & Africa at Infoblox

The future of the workplace is undoubtedly a remote workforce, accessing the corporate network via
mobile devices and the cloud. This is likely to cause a few sleepless nights for the teams traditionally
responsible for managing network security on-premise.

With remote working, data breaches will become commonplace. Networks will be infiltrated with malware
due to an increase in roaming or off-network access.

Vulnerable and unsecure

At the root of many of these breaches, and the damage and stress that accompanies them, lies the DNS,
or domain name system. Often referred to as the address book of the internet, DNS sits at the heart of
every organisation’s IT network, translating domain names into machine-readable IP addresses. Despite
most internet communications relying on DNS, however, it is inherently vulnerable and not sufficiently
secured, resulting in weaknesses that can be exploited for criminal ends.

DNS is used by a high percentage of malware to carry out campaigns such as communicating with C&C
servers, holding data to ransom or serving as a pathway for data exfiltration. Due to its position at the

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2020 Edition 58
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