OpenDNS Protects Surfers from DNS Flaw
A flaw in many DNS servers leave users vulnerable to a redirect exploit that could send them to the darker side of the web. The flaw was discovered by security researcher, Dan Kaminsky had been advising ISPs and others to patch their DNS servers to protect themselves and their customers. Through an unfortunate mistake details of the flaw were released into the wild this week when those details were posted on a blog. That post has long since been removed. However, the cat is already out of the proverbial bag.
So, what does this mean for you? Hopefully your ISP was one of the more proactive and has patched their servers. Not all have been so swift and have left customers vulnerable. To see if your DNS servers have been fixed, go here for an instant analysis.
If you have followed my earlier advise and are using OpenDNS, then you can skip the test. OpenDNS servers are not vulnerable to the flaw as shown by the test results:
My advise to customers who are either unsure about thier DNS servers or if thier servers fail is to switch to OpenDNS at least temporily. Who knows, with the feature set that OpenDNS offers, you may decide to use them as a perminent solution. I did a long time ago and have been a happy with the speed, features and security that I now expereince. You may too.
