One of the ways in which the Internet Black Hats (bad guys) attack unsuspecting victims is through a type of attack called Phishing.
In a typical phishing attack, the victim receives an email message that appears to come from a legitimate source such as their bank, PayPal, Amazon, or Facebook. The message often looks exactly like a real message from one of those sources. The message mentions some dire circumstance that the victim can clear up simply by clicking on the included link. The victim thinks they are going to the website of the sender when in fact they are directed to the hacker’s website where their browser/computer is attacked.
Phishing attacks work because when the victim clicks on the link in the mail message, the browser dutifully looks up the domain (web address) with a DNS Query (ref2) and sends the victim to the specified website.
But what if the DNS Query failed? What if the DNS server that is looking up the web address knew that the hacker’s website was dangerous and refused to let you go there? That’s what OpenDNS does (read One Million Phishes That Didn’t Happen). Instead of blindly going where the email pointed, it adds some smart decision making designed to protect your computer, or your personal data, from malicious intent.
OpenDNS is just one more tool Comstar uses to help protect its customers. Comstar’s internal systems and internet access customers are protected from these types of attacks automatically.
OpenDNS can protect you too – at home or at work. For more information, visit OpenDNS.com.