Comodo Suggests DNS Security Guidelines

Think of DNS as a phonebook for the computer. When you want to look up someone's phone number, you look in the phone directory for that person's name, which corresponds with a number that your telephone can connect to. DNS works the same way. When you type a website address such as www.windowsitpro.com into your browser's search bar, the computer contacts a domain name server. The domain name server then identifies the IP address that corresponds to the domain name, just like a telephone user looking up a telephone number in the directory. The DNS server then replies to your browser, informing it of the IP address, and the browser duly connects.

For most Internet users, the DNS server they use is furnished by their ISP. This process of matching human-readable domain names to machine-understandable IP addresses is part of the fabric of the Internet. It happens millions of times per day.

Sometimes, though, the DNS database can be corrupted with incorrect IP addresses—the way a telephone directory might be printed with incorrect telephone numbers. If that happens, the Internet user can be directed to a spoof website. That site may be designed to look exactly like the site the Internet user intended to visit, and the visitor might be tricked into sharing confidential information there.

Following Comodo's recent acquisition of DNS.com, Comodo announced industry guidelines for managed DNS, recommending it for industry-wide adoption to keep the Internet safe for future generations.

"This body of work has serious implications for the Internet security and management," said Melih Abdulhayoglu, Comodo CEO and chief security architect. "Standards are important because you need to assure that everyone is operating at the same level of security and that ISPs do not compromise their customers' security without knowing it by operating without any standards to refer to and be accountable for to guard against malicious activity."