Infoblox DNS Threat Index Increases by 58% Due to Phishing Attacks

Marketwatch.com reported on 27th July, 2015 stating that Infoblox Inc., network control enterprise, released the report pertaining to second quarter of 2015 for the Infoblox DNS Threat Index controlled by IID (Internet Identity) which is a cyber-threat intelligence company based in Tacoma, Washington, USA and the Index shows a record surge of 133 which is 58% higher than the second quarter of 2014 due to increase in phishing assaults.

Infoblox and IID introduce the Infoblox DNS Threat Index as a sign of malicious activity throughout the world abusing the Domain Name System (DNS).

The Infoblox DNS Threat Index shows 100 as the average quarterly results during 2013 and 2014. But during Q1 of 2015, the index rested at 122 which have now jumped further 11 points to arrive at a record high of 133 during second quarter.

According to analysis of the information by IID and Infoblox, the sole biggest factor motivating the second-quarter surge is the formation of maligned domains for phishing attacks. Phishing, a weapon time-tested by cybercriminals, encompasses sending emails directing users to fake websites to collect confidential information like names of account, passwords and credit-card numbers.

Phishing was increased by 74% in Q2. Darkreading.com published news on 27th July, 2015 quoting Rod Rasmussen, CTO of IID of 2Q 2015 activity, as saying: "We observed lot of phishing domains put up during second quarter."

Growing demand for exploit kits is another significant contributor to the record high of the Index. These packages of malicious software (or malware) are normally hidden on websites which look to be harmless but download malware as and when a user visits even if the user does not do any action.

Infosecurity-magazine.com reported on 28th July, 2015 quoting Rasmussen as saying "DNS is significant infrastructure for the Internet which cannot be switched off. We have analysed and found that cyber-criminals recognize this and use DNS as a route for penetrating corporate, personal and government networks".

Infotechlead.com published news on 27th July, 2015 quoting Craig Sanderson, Senior Director of security products of Infoblox, as saying "Organisations can improve their security by procuring and understanding DNS threat intelligence information and then blocking the access to tainted domains by using this data".

» SPAMfighter News - 8/6/2015