According to recent statistics, DDoS attacks are up to almost 40%. The National Cyber Security Alliance reports that as much as 60% of the small and medium-sized organizations that are hacked, after six months, will go under.
If your website is generating a DNS error, your business can be in great danger. Not only can you lose productivity and potential business, but you can also be at risk of a cybersecurity attack.
Are the people in your company receiving domain name server errors from various sites and not telling you? This is a big problem.
If we have your attention, good! Businesses today look to MSPs to help prevent DNS errors. Let’s talk about what a DNS error is in more depth and how a managed IT service provider can help you prevent them.
Ready? Let’s dive in for the explanation and solutions.
What Is a DNS?
First, a Domain Name System, or DNS, is a naming database. An internet domain name is located and translated to an IP address. “IP” stands for Internet Protocol.
An IP address for a website is made of a long series of periods and random numbers. Domain names make it simpler because they take the place of the sequence of numbers. This is what you use when you look up a website.
The DNS will map the name that a person uses to find a website to that computer’s IP address or the device that is used to locate that website. It will store the website’s domain name that a user visited so that it can load it faster.
Why do DNS Errors Occur?
When a DNS errors, you cannot connect to the IP address, essentially. This signals that you might have lost the internet or network access. You may see the following messages when this occurs:
- “DNS server not available”
- “Server DNS Address could not be found”
This is a lot like calling someone and getting a busy signal. There are various potential causes. All causes will result in a failed connection.
Causes of a DNS Error
There are multiple components to assure quick access to the web. When you see a DNS error, it can be an issue with any of the following:
- Router or modem
- Browser
- Computer
- ISP (Internet Service Provider)
It could also mean a DNS attack, which is much more serious. The most common DNS attacks are:
- DDoS attack
- DNS rebinding attack
- Cache poisoning
- Distributed Reflection DoS attack
- DNS Tunneling
- DNS hijacking
- Basic NXDOMAIN attack
- Phantom domain attack
- Random subdomain attack
- TCP SYN Floods
- Domain lock-up attack
This list seems very scary, but that is why you should have a professional help you navigate preventing DNS errors. Also, you will need to talk to your staff about what a DNS error is and tell them to communicate with you quickly should they spot this.
Troubleshooting DNS Errors
You could try troubleshooting a DNS error yourself. Here are a few resolutions to try:
- Check your connections and cables
- Reboot your router
- Run a malware scan
- Check the site (Check that the problem is actually the website, not the DNS)
If these tips do not generate results and resolve the issue, you will need to find another resource to help you. This is when your MSP should step in.
How MSPs Prevent DNS Errors
MSPs are key to providing your company safety with cybersecurity. This is because MSPs have a unique position. They provide monitoring and endpoint security management.
Unfortunately, cybercriminals and hackers are a fact of business that we all must deal with. An MSP can come to your rescue by offering DNS filtering.
A standard web filtering can block access to websites solely on the URL. DNS filtering is more robust as it blocks access to resolve a bad site. This means that before an employee accesses an HTML code, the web session blocks itself.
Stopping the Threat at the Source
The result of DNS filtering is that it will eliminate malicious code. Plus, it will lessen the latency for sites that are allowed, too. This improves the user’s experience overall.
The biggest advantage of DNS filtering from your MSP over web filtering is speed and security. DNS filtering checks certain controls, so if a website or IP address has a reputation as malicious, requesting site access will not work, it will block.
Working with an MSP will keep your business safe with a blacklist of IP addresses and malicious web pages.
Multi-Layer Security Strategy
Firewalls are critical to secure the perimeter of your business. However, the biggest vulnerability is your staff’s internet activities like email and web browsing.
MSPs can provide deployment of DNS filtering solutions simply, with no hardware or software applications. They can also protect devices that are onsite and offsite on your premises. A multi-layer approach is critical in this day of age.
Besides DNS filtering solutions, an MSP can also include embedded malware filtering. This scans internet traffic in its entirety for malware, ransomware, and other forms of embedded malicious code. This helps protect your employees and your business from websites that are compromised only recently.
Visore Can Help Prevent DNS Errors
Affecting the private and public sector organizations are three primary cybersecurity challenges. These include a gap in knowledge and experience, scarce cybersecurity resources, and the enormous task of analyzing an overwhelming amount of security data. If you are doing all this while still trying to execute daily tasks, it is time you contacted Visore.
At Visore, we believe in trust, teamwork, and “keep-it-simple” for successful technology implementation. We can help your business prevent a DNS error from happening. Schedule a demo with Visore today.