Heavy Networking 606: Dealing With DNS And Domain Name Abuse

The Domain Name System (DNS) holds the Web together. It’s operated by people with a wide spectrum of competency and perspectives. End users just want their domain names, registrars want to make money for minimum effort, and the whole ecosystem relies on goodwill, common interest, and best efforts. At the same time, bad actors take advantage of DNS for nefarious purposes such as malware and botnets. On today’s show we talk with Graeme Bunton, Director, at the DNS Abuse Institute. The institute is a community effort to create recommended practices, foster collaboration, and develop solutions to DNS-related problems including malware, botnets, phishing, pharming, and spam. It was developed by the Public Interest Registry (PRI), which operates the .ORG top-level domain. We discuss: * The diffuse nature of DNS and the challenges of collective action * How domain names can be used to do bad things * The tools that registries and registrars have, and what their limits are * How the institute works to combat DNS abuse * More Sponsor: Dell Technologies Dell Technologies is helping enterprise customers to pave the way for transforming their networks with innovative open networking offerings and global support and services.  A key component of this journey are commercial versions of open source SONiC both within the data center and further. Learn how open source SONiC can play multiple roles in your enterprise network infrastructure with Dell Technologies. Go to delltechnologies.com/networking. Show Links: DNS Abuse Definition: Attributes of Mitigation – CircleID DNS Abuse Institute.org