Strengthening Cybersecurity: The Critical Role of Domain Security

The digital landscape continues to evolve, with organisations adopting new Internet-based applications, combined with fast growing numbers of tech-focused startups. This has brought not only significant opportunities for us all to do things quicker, safer, and more efficiently, but has also reduced costs, and thus increased profits for many organisations. But with these opportunities comes risks, in a number of forms in the digital world, none more so when we consider the humble domain name.

1985 saw the first domain names being registered. Forty years, and over 350 million names later, the domain name system underpins digital infrastructures that keep the world’s major economies going. However, the growth of cyber threats has seen a renewed focus on domain name security, once a major vulnerability in an organisation’s defences against maleficent forces.

Domain names still present a viable and valuable target for those seeking to damage reputations and revenues, which is why it is essential to work with a partner that puts security front and centre of its value proposition. The rise of AI-powered DNS threats has enabled adaptive attacks, with machine learning dynamically altering domain generation patterns to evade traditional detection systems.

Domain-focused threats can take many forms, whether it be looking to exploit vulnerabilities in systems and people, cyber and typosquatting or attacks on the DNS itself. Organisations can, and do, spend significant sums on their cyber threat protection systems, but often neglect some of the simpler, and more cost-effective domain-related security measures that will ensure they stay present, protected, and prosperous.

Understanding Domain Security Threats

The good news for anyone tasked with building a robust defensive strategy around their domain name portfolio is a lot of the hard work is done by trusted partners. The first step any organisation can take to enhance their domain name security stance is to choose the right domain name registrar. Whilst it is true that domain names are by their very nature unique, the organisations that support them most certainly are not.

Domain names can be purchased for pocket change in some instances yet can support revenue streams of billions of pounds. The price of a domain name is irrelevant when it comes to the utility and security it provides, or more importantly, the domain registrar provides. The peace of mind that is offered by a corporate domain name registrar far outweighs the slightly higher price point, with security features such as enterprise DNS and registrar lock often included for free, protecting critical domain names against DDoS attacks and unauthorised or accidental changes at the local level. These types of registrars will also provide access to additional third party, value-add services such as Registry Lock, SSLs and encryption certificates and email security products such as DMARC.

The types of threats to online security

The threat landscape continues to evolve, with cyber criminals and bad actors constantly looking at ways to damage revenue and reputation. They often only have to be lucky once, whilst the brand holder needs to be constantly vigilant. These threats today include:

• Domain and DNS Hijacking – unauthorised access is gained to the DNS and domain names are redelegated to malicious or harmful websites, or the domain name is taken out of the control of the rightful owner.
• Email Phishing – cyber or typosquatted domains can be used to launch phishing attacks, with names often registered and laying dormant for periods of time to stay hidden from traditional domain monitoring.
• DNS DDoS attacks – massive spikes in DNS queries flood a nameserver looking to disrupt or even take critical web sites offline.
• Ransomware attacks – malware being inadvertently downloaded onto a corporate network, spreading quickly across networks.

Despite the best efforts of solutions providers, For instance, in the third quarter of 2024, reported phishing attacks rose to 932,923, up from 877,536 in the second quarter according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, whilst network security consultancy Gcore analysed attack data from Q3–Q4 2024, revealing a 56% Year on Year rise in the total number of DDoS attacks with the largest attack peaking at a record 2 terabits per second.

Domain security best practice

The good news is there are some relatively straight-forward steps that organisations can take to mitigate the risks they may face from domain name and DNS based threats today.

1. Choose the right domain registrar – Information security and the integrity of data is critical so choose a domain name registrar who has security certification such as ISO:27001, SOC2 or Cyber Security Essentials Plus. Ensure that any registrar portal access has multi-factor authentication or meets the standards of your organisation’s single sign on protocols.
2. Implement Registry Lock on critical domain names – Ensuring that the crown jewels domain names cannot be maliciously or accidently changed or deleted instils trust in your brand, online. Only authorised personnel, using the correct validation and authentication protocols can make changes to the key domains ensuring that revenues and reputations are intact.
3. Use an enterprise-level DNS provider – Many registrars will offer free DNS which for defensive domain registrations is adequate, but for those names which resolve to critical websites and online properties, using enterprise-level DNS which can handle high levels of traffic queries, offers multiple DNS server locations around the world and most importantly today, provides automatic DDoS detection and mitigation to ensure legitimate traffic is not impacted during a cyber-attack on name servers.
4. Implement Domain Name Monitoring – Understanding what other domain names exist or are registered in almost real-time is critical to determine the threat level to a brand. A good domain name monitoring solution will not only find and report on domain names that are registered using the keyword or brand name anywhere in the string but will also automatically track the most egregious names to ensure when they are about to be used for brand-damaging, nefarious activities, action can be taken immediately.
5. Use blocking solutions to keep variants of brand names and trademarks protected – The domain name space expanded significantly in 2012 with the introduction of over 1,200 new Top-Level Domains and is due to grow again from 2026 with the launch of the second new gTLD round. Staying on top of registrations is now a minefield especially where variants of trademarks are often used to trick unsuspecting website users. Domain blocking solutions, such as the GlobalBlock, provide comprehensive, low-cost coverage over TLDs and variants, meaning that no-one can illegitimately register infringing domain names or variants of it.

Summary

To conclude, whilst securing the relevant domain names, aligned to your brand and trademarks is a critical aspect of protecting your business’s online presence and sensitive data, it only takes you so far. By implementing additional proactive measures, companies can defend against cyber threats like domain hijacking, spoofing, and phishing attacks. These steps include selecting a reputable domain registrar, using strong passwords, enabling auto-renewal, and setting up two-factor authentication.

Additionally, registering, monitoring, and blocking variations of your domain name and trademarking it can guard against imitators and cybersquatting. Properly configuring DNS servers, using SSL certificates and enterprise-level DNS services, will significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to domain-based cyber-attacks, ensuring the safety of your organisation, employees, and customers.