New Research: Spike In DNS Queries Driving Phishing and Cyber Attacks

Stu Sjouwerman | Mar 6, 2024

Fake Court Order Used Take Over DomainsNew analysis of DNS queries shows material growth in phishing, malware and botnets and offers insight into how many threats the average person experiences.

Most of the reports I cover use detection on an endpoint, a security solution, or the corporate network for their analysis, but the 2024 Annual Security Report from DNSFilter feels a bit more impartial because it uses DNS queries to determine malicious activity.

In their report, they cite notable increases in DNS queries associated with specific aspects of cyber attacks:

  • Phishing attacks rose by 106% when compared to the previous year
  • Use of links to malware rose by 40%
  • Use of botnets rose by 32%
  • And, as the title of the article indicates, use of day-old domains jumps 1250%

By categorizing domains and, therefore, DNS queries, it is possible to figure out how many times a day an individual user is both encountering and interacting with a malicious email or webpage. According to the report, the number of 5 – 5 DNS queries known to be malicious are made on behalf of an individual user every day.

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