Global DNS Record Manipulation, Hijacking Campaign at Massive Scale Linked to Iran

Home / News

Global DNS Record Manipulation, Hijacking Campaign at Massive Scale Linked to Iran

By CircleID Reporter
January 11, 2019, 6:24 pm PST Views: 11,079 Add Comment

A wave of DNS hijacking is reported to have affected dozens of domains belonging to government, telecommunications and internet infrastructure entities across the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and North America. The attack has targeted victims across the globe on an almost unprecedented scale, with a high degree of success, says cybersecurity firm FireEye. “While we do not currently link this activity to any tracked group, initial research suggests the actor or actors responsible have a nexus to Iran. ... While this campaign employs some traditional tactics, it is differentiated from other Iranian activity we have seen by leveraging DNS hijacking at scale. The attacker uses this technique for their initial foothold, which can then be exploited in a variety of ways.”

The precise mechanism by which the DNS records were changed is unknown, says FireEye but believes at least some records were changed by compromising a victim’s domain registrar account.

By CircleID Reporter

CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.

Visit Page

Filed Under

Comments

The Weekly Wrap

More and more professionals are choosing to publish critical posts on CircleID from all corners of the Internet industry. If you find it hard to keep up daily, consider subscribing to our weekly digest. We will provide you a convenient summary report once a week sent directly to your inbox. It's a quick and easy read.

I make a point of reading CircleID. There is no getting around the utility of knowing what thoughtful people are thinking and saying about our industry.

VINTON CERF
Co-designer of the TCP/IP Protocols & the Architecture of the Internet