As I write this column, we are in the midst of a massive denial of service attack by as-yet-unidentified forces who have targeted one of the busiest Domain Name Servers on the planet!
Domain Name Servers, located strategically across the globe, are used to translate “human readable” domain names (like Amazon.com, Netflix.com and Paypal.com) into the actual IP addresses used by internet message routing equipment.
The websites above, as well as many others that use the Dyn.com domain name service, are being affected. As a result, you may notice your internet connections are running slower than usual, and perhaps, you may not be able to reach certain websites at all.
Although there is not much you can do to alleviate this situation, if you own a website, you should be monitoring it closely to see if your traffic is being affected by this issue. If you are an individual whose computer happens to use the Dyn.com DNS server to translate website names, you should consider switching, at least temporarily, to a different DNS provider.
OpenDNS hosts a popular DNS that is open to the public and does not appear to be affected by this issue. Instructions on using their DNS can be found here.
If you require assistance, please contact me at Safe and Secure Computing.
