Could your befuddled, computer inept parents be at risk of DNS poisoning? Find out more after the drop!
Based on the findings of a joint team comprised of researchers from Google and the Georgia Institute of Technology (yes, Georgia has technology, a new threat dubbed DNS poisoning that involves tainted open-recursive DNS servers delivering invalid referrals to surfers.
The thought is that malware authors “poison” these servers with erroneous information in order to compel them to deliver innacurate DNS results which in turn refers the users to a false website that actually looks and reads as if it were the proper site. Then poor old ladies could, theoretically, piss away their life savings while attempting some seemingly innocuous Internet banking.
Since it looks as though you’re visiting the proper site anti-malware software could be rendered powerless. But, I’d encourage you to not freak out. A lot of this is still speculative though, so, uh, more as it develops.
DNS poisoning used to redirect unwitting surfers [Ars Technica]