#prevention tips for dns hijacking
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marketingtools-blog · 11 months ago
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Best VPNs for Protecting Against DNS Hijacking and Phishing Attacks
Are you tired of feeling like a fish swimming in dangerous waters, constantly at risk of falling victim to DNS hijacking and phishing attacks? Look no further! We’ve compiled a list of the best VPNs that will act as your impenetrable shield, protecting you from these malicious online threats. With these VPNs, it’s as if you have a virtual bodyguard standing by your side, ensuring your online…
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leasepacket · 5 months ago
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What is a DDoS Attack?
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One of the most common and disruptive online threats is the DDoS attack. DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service. Understanding what this means, how it works, and how to protect against it is necessary for anyone who uses the internet. This blog will explain DDoS attacks in simple terms, covering their definition, how they operate, the damage they can cause, and tips on how to protect against them. So let's get started without any delays.
Understanding DDoS Attacks
A DDoS attack is an attempt to disturb the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. The aim is to make the online service unavailable to its intended users. It is done by using multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic. These can include computers and other networked resources, such as IoT (Internet of Things) devices.
Key Components of a DDoS Attack:
Attackers: The individuals or groups who initiate the DDoS attack.
Botnets: Networks of hijacked devices used to carry out the attack. These devices are often infected with malware.
Target: The server, network, or website that the attackers aim to disrupt.
How Does a DDoS Attack Work?
A DDoS attack is like an unexpected traffic jam clogging up a highway, preventing regular traffic from arriving at its destination. Here’s a step-by-step look at how a DDoS attack is typically carried out:
Compromising Devices: Attackers begin by infecting multiple computers or devices with malware, turning them into a network of bots (also known as a botnet). This is often done through phishing emails, malicious downloads, or exploiting vulnerabilities in software.
Command and Control: The attackers control the botnet remotely through a command and control server. They instruct these bots to send large amounts of data to the target website or server.
Launching the Attack: At a designated time, all the bots in the botnet start sending requests to the target simultaneously. This sudden surge in traffic overwhelms the target’s servers, making it slow down or even crash entirely.
Sustaining the Attack: The attackers can keep the attack going for hours, days, or even longer, depending on their goal and resources.
Types of DDoS Attacks
There are several types of DDoS attacks, each targeting different components of a network connection:
Volume-Based Attacks: These focus on overwhelming the bandwidth of the target site. They include techniques like ICMP floods, UDP floods, and spoofed-packet floods.
Protocol Attacks: These attacks exploit vulnerabilities in the network protocols. Examples include SYN floods, Ping of Death, and fragmented packet attacks.
Application Layer Attacks: These are more sophisticated and target the application layer where web pages are generated on the server and delivered in response to HTTP requests. Examples include HTTP floods, Slowloris, and DNS query floods.
The Impact of DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks can have severe consequences for businesses and individuals alike. Here are some of the potential impacts:
Downtime: The most immediate effect of a DDoS attack is that it makes the targeted service unavailable. For businesses, this means customers cannot access their website, resulting in lost revenue.
Reputation Damage: Frequent or prolonged downtime can damage a company’s reputation, as customers may lose trust in the reliability of their services.
Financial Costs: Beyond lost sales, businesses may incur significant costs in mitigating the attack, upgrading their security infrastructure, and dealing with potential legal consequences.
Data Breaches: In some cases, DDoS attacks are used as a smokescreen to distract security teams while the attackers infiltrate the network and steal sensitive data.
How to Protect Against DDoS Attacks
Protecting against DDoS attacks requires a multi-faceted approach. Here are some essential tips:
Invest in Robust Security Solutions: Use DDoS protection services that can detect and mitigate attacks before they impact your services. These include solutions from cloud providers and dedicated DDoS mitigation services.
Implement Firewalls and Load Balancers: Firewalls can filter out malicious traffic, while load balancers can distribute traffic across multiple servers, making it harder for an attack to overwhelm your system.
Maintain a Strong Network Architecture: Design your network with redundancy and failover capabilities. Spread out your resources to avoid having a single point of failure.
Monitor Network Traffic: Regularly monitor your network for unusual traffic patterns. Early detection of abnormal traffic can help mitigate the impact of an attack.
Have a Response Plan: Develop and practice an incident response plan so your team knows exactly what to do in the event of a DDoS attack. This includes having contacts at your ISP and DDoS protection service provider.
Conclusion
DDoS attacks are a common threat in today’s internet connected time. They can cause some serious damage to businesses and individuals by making online services unavailable and damaging reputations. Understanding what DDoS attacks are, how they work, and how to protect against them is essential for maintaining online security. By investing in high security measures, maintaining a secure network architecture, and staying active, you can significantly reduce the risk and impact of DDoS attacks.
FAQs
Q1. What is a DDoS attack and how does it work?
A DDoS attack, or Distributed Denial of Service attack, is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. It works by using multiple compromised devices, known as a botnet, to send a massive amount of traffic to the target, causing it to slow down or crash. This makes the service unavailable to its intended users, resulting in downtime and potential financial loss.
Q2. What are the common types of DDoS attacks?
There are several types of DDoS attacks, each targeting different components of a network. Volume-based attacks aim to overwhelm the bandwidth of the target site, including ICMP floods and UDP floods. Protocol attacks exploit weaknesses in network protocols, such as SYN floods and Ping of Death. Application layer attacks target the application layer where web pages are generated, including HTTP floods and DNS query floods. Each type requires different strategies for mitigation and protection.
Q3. How can DDoS attacks impact my business?
DDoS attacks can have severe consequences for businesses. The immediate effect is downtime, which makes the targeted service unavailable and can lead to lost revenue. Repeated or prolonged downtime can damage a company’s reputation, eroding customer trust. Additionally, businesses may face significant financial costs in mitigating the attack, upgrading security infrastructure, and dealing with potential legal issues. In some cases, DDoS attacks are used as a distraction while cybercriminals infiltrate the network to steal sensitive data.
Q4. How can I protect my business from DDoS attacks?
Protecting your business from DDoS attacks involves a multi-faceted approach. Invest in robust security solutions, such as DDoS protection services from cloud providers or dedicated DDoS mitigation services. Implement firewalls and load balancers to filter malicious traffic and distribute traffic across multiple servers. Maintain a strong network architecture with redundancy and failover capabilities to avoid a single point of failure. Regularly monitor network traffic for unusual patterns and develop an incident response plan to swiftly address any attacks. By taking these steps, you can significantly reduce the risk and impact of DDoS attacks on your business.
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ariyarathi · 3 years ago
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What Is Domain Phishing & What tips To Keep Your Business’s Domain Secure from Spoofing?
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A study by Forbes concluded that there could be up to 3.1 billion domain spoofing emails being sent daily. The most common understanding of spoofing is associated with email spoofing. However, domain spoofing is a more significant threat to organizations. Phishing has become a very common form of cybercrime. Fake emails and websites can trick individuals, and businesses have a variety of options when it comes to protecting their online assets. Most organizations are aware of basic email spoofing but the lesser-known type of spoofing called Domain Spoofing can prove more damaging to their business. Domain spoofing, also known as domain hijacking, happens when an individual or group acquires a domain with the ownership of another.
Businesses are at high risk of this infringement and are often unaware that it is happening. In addition to the social engineering and financial ramifications, there is a blatant trademark violation. Domain spoofing can negatively affect your business' reputation and credibility through messages and emails sent from your brand identity. Domain spoofing is a phishing technique that involves an attacker who abuses an organization’s domain to impersonate it or any of its employees and misleads the victim for malicious gains.
Spoof domains created by altering the characters in the name of any legitimate organization’s domain are one of the techniques employed in phishing mail. Domain spoofing is a form of cyber attack when the attacker tries to imitate a legitimate domain to fool victims. Once an attacker gains access to the login details, he or she can carry out various activities such as changing the user’s password and redirecting it to fake pages.
Types Of Domain Spoofing
There are two main types of domain spoofing, classifying broadly, namely, URL spoofing and email spoofing. Below is more information on each class.
URL Spoofing
The URL spoofing vulnerability is a security flaw in which an attacker can maliciously change the URL of the website and pass off one website as another similar-looking one. The attacker builds a website with similar graphics and URLs so that the victim can mistake it for the genuine site. URL spoofing is usually done by cyber criminals to steal sensitive information like credit card details, account numbers, login credentials etc.
Introduction of relevant domain name makes the original website quite user-friendly and easier to use for the users as well as webmasters. URL spoofing by cyber criminals has become a serious problem and needs to be tackled with relevant domain name system. URL spoofing is indeed one of the more important issues affecting an enterprise. Ensure your users are protected with a solution that can catch these threats early.
Email Spoofing
An email spoof is a mail message that was forged to make you believe that it originated from someone else, i.e., that it spoofs the sender’s identity. With email spoofing, the attacker sends a fake email, containing malicious software or a link to a virus-infected site. Email spoofing; attackers trick the victims into thinking that a particular email has been sent from a genuine domain when it is sent from a fake one.
Simply put, the malicious actor uses a malicious email address incorporating a slightly altered name of the original website’s domain. This technique is possible because domain verification is not part of the email protocol. However, new email phishing protection solutions include setting up DMARC and DKIM to verify the authenticity of the sender’s domain.
How To Protect An Organization From Spoofing?
High-risk phishing domains and spam are delivered to the organization's employees. To ensure that employees do not respond to these malicious attempts, it is crucial that a comprehensive anti-phishing solution be deployed as part of an overall Security Awareness Program.  
Organizations need to put anti-phishing, anti-ransom ware solutions, and other safeguards and control measures in place in order to protect themselves against cyber threats. Nobody is safe from phishing. Phishing emails are always an attack waiting to happen. Every business needs to be informed on how to protect employees from spoofing by having anti-phishing tools.
1.Checking The SSL certificate: You can check the SSL certificate on any publicly available website. On the top right corner of the page, you will see a green bar that indicates that the website is secure and ready to go. The SSL certificate encrypts the traffic to and from the website. An SSL check verifies the certificates and identity information that a website operator enters when obtaining an SSL certificate.
2.Adding An SPF record: SPF adds a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) verification record to your Domain Name System (DNS) zone file to prevent spammers from using your domain name in "spam" email messages. When you publish an SPF record, you will only receive emails from authorized mail servers. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records are used to verify the authenticity of a message that originated from your domain. In other words, when your email server sends out email on your behalf, SPF verifies that you are the authorized sender.
When not configured properly, SPFs may reject legitimate emails by unknown senders or allow spoofing of others’ domains. Your business or domain must publish an SPF record. The SPF record allows receiving servers to determine if your incoming mail is authorized by your domain. When your domain has an SPF, you can help eliminate spam and phishing attempts that try to use your domain in the message body of a fake email.
3.Adding A DKIM Record: A DKIM is a standard that protects email senders and their recipients from malicious attacks such as spoofing, phishing, and spamming. It enables organizations to offer authenticity for an email to prevent the delivery of spam. It adds digital signatures to the headers of email messages that a public key can validate. In simple terms, it provides an encryption key and signature to verify the authenticity of your message.
A DKIM record is a method designated to verify and authenticate the outgoing emails. In simple terms, a DKIM sign is added to the header in such a way that it permits recipient to validate if the email coming from your domain or organization is genuine and authentic. This becomes very essential in case of senders maintaining their good reputation online. A DKIM Record is a type of Domain based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) record, which is associated with a domain name.
This means that it is a specific element in the DNS record of a domain name for the purpose of adding authentication or validation information to email messages (SPF, DKIM) sent by that domain or its servers.
4.Adding A DMARC Record: DMARC record allows domain owners to specify how to handle reports from receivers about emails that fail from authentication standards. For example, if a receiver believes that an SPF or DKIM check failed for an email, it can report this back to the domain owner.
This study is part of a larger effort to find opportunities for improving cyber security and preventing fraud against organizations." Help your organization integrate email authentication as part of your email security program. Study and implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Achieve authentication transparency among ISPs, filter providers, and global receivers by using DMARC.
source by:-https://atozcybersecurity.blogspot.com/2021/08/what-is-domain-phishing-what-tips-to.html
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eaglejtech-blog · 8 years ago
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Ransomware
Wanna Cry Virus (Ransomware) Type: Ransomware Danger Level: High (Ransomware is by far the worst threat you can encounter) Symptoms: Very few and unnoticeable ones before the ransom notification comes up. Distribution Method: From fake ads and fake system requests to spam emails and contagious web pages. Description about: RANSOMWARE Ransomware is known as the most malicious virus category and is believed to have originated in Russia. The very first examples of such viruses are known to have appeared at the end of the 20th century. Back then there used to be two types of ransom-requesting programs: @ file-locking-up, the subgroup Wanna Cry Virus belongs to that is expert at encrypting some files from drives: @ screen-locking, the subcategory, whose members are only able to target the screens of all kinds of devices as computers/ laptops/ phones and tablets; and block them, demanding your money for making them accessible The most frightening Ransomware group – the file-encryption causing viruses, and how these viruses normally function: First of all, such malicious programs can enter your computer on their own or with some help. The contamination could occur in many ways. Nonetheless, it is likely to take place via email letters and their attachments, and as soon as you load any of them, an infection could follow. It is even possible that such a letter may even include a Trojan virus. One more possible case is to get infected by this malicious piece by loading contagious web pages. What’s more, you might end up infected if you open/ follow a malicious advertisement – clicking on such ads is likely to redirect you to a contaminated web page, where many forms of malware may automatically infiltrate your PC. However, there are many other potential sources like torrents and video-sharing websites. In this case the method of infecting is almost similar: – you get infected by this virus automatically- once you get exposed to it. The next circle of the process of contamination is the review, which Wanna Cry Virus may perform of all your disks and drives. Such a research targets all you storages and is focused on finding the data, which has been accessed most often. Following that, Wanna Cry Virus normally prepares a list with all such files. Then, the encryption process takes place. Wanna Cry Virus usually proceeds with making all the enlisted files inaccessible. Right after every single data piece from the aforementioned list has been encrypted, you get a special notification about that. Typically, such an alert includes all the info about paying the required ransom – and sometimes even some more scary threats about the future of the encoded data. Will paying off the ransom be enough to solve such a serious issue? To our mutual misfortune, in the general case – this is NOT what follows. In fact, the hackers may just keep your files encrypted forever once they have received your money. If we were you, we would never agree to pay any criminals – at least not until we have made every possible attempt to solve the issue ourselves. The following may help indeed: See and pay/ask an expert for some help and assistance. Perhaps some professionals have their own manner of dealing with such dangerous viruses. Moreover, it is INDEED wiser to pay for tips or know-how, and possibly save your data, than to simply give money to the harassing hackers. Nevertheless, even some of the professionals with experience in this field might admit to being incapable of finding a real solution to the problem with Wanna Cry Virus. Check whether you are able to remove this contamination via following the advice in our well-designed Removal Guide. That may really help you, but still, you receive no guarantee of its positive consequences. What could indeed work when it comes to Ransomware: There is only one known method of successfully fighting Ransomware and- surprise- its name is prevention. This has always been the most effective choice. What you have to do is to make an effort to BACK UP all your important files as often as you can until doing so becomes a habit. Creating such habits may save you from all sorts of threats. List of Ransomware/Malware/Unwanted Programs/Browser Hijacker: Cerber3 Ransomware DNS Unlocker Tavanero.info Tech-connect.biz Antivirus Security Pro Zepto Ransomware CryptoWall Ransomware Alureon Antivirus Blocking Rules OnlineMapFinder Elex Hijacker CounterFlix Launchpage.org Yeadesktop.com Cry128 Ransomware Haters Ransomware Jaff Ransomware ‘.loptr File Extension’ Ransomware Freshdesk Ransomware FuckTheSystem Ransomware DirectionsOnline Magic PC Cleaner Better Tab ThunderCrypt Ransomware GruxEr Ransomware UIWIX Ransomware SrchUSk Weather Hub ZipLocker Ransomware Crypto-Blocker Ransomware Maykolin Ransomware Ruby Ransomware FrozrLock Ransomware ‘Error Hard Drive Safety Delete’ Pop-Ups System.donation-tools.org mixGames Search Searchy.online BitKangoroo Ransomware Media Player Air ComboTab Kolytorelflbe.ru Beautify Desktop Wallpaper Carrerafun.club .......and many more
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nedsvallesny · 6 years ago
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Crooks Continue to Exploit GoDaddy Hole
Godaddy.com, the world’s largest domain name registrar, recently addressed an authentication weakness that cybercriminals were using to blast out spam through legitimate, dormant domains. But several more recent malware spam campaigns suggest GoDaddy’s fix hasn’t gone far enough, and that scammers likely still have a sizable arsenal of hijacked GoDaddy domains at their disposal.
On January 22, KrebsOnSecurity published research showing that crooks behind a series of massive sextortion and bomb threat spam campaigns throughout 2018 — an adversary that’s been dubbed “Spammy Bear” —  achieved an unusual amount of inbox delivery by exploiting a weakness at GoDaddy which allowed anyone to add a domain to their GoDaddy account without validating that they actually owned the domain.
Spammy Bear targeted dormant but otherwise legitimate domains that had one thing in common: They all at one time used GoDaddy’s hosted Domain Name System (DNS) service. Researcher Ron Guilmette discovered that Spammy Bear was able to hijack thousands of these dormant domains for spam simply by registering free accounts at GoDaddy and telling the company’s automated DNS service to allow the sending of email with those domains from an Internet address controlled by the spammers.
Very soon after that story ran, GoDaddy said it had put in place a fix for the problem, and had scrubbed more than 4,000 domain names used in the spam campaigns that were identified in my Jan. 22 story. But on or around February 1, a new spam campaign that leveraged similarly hijacked domains at GoDaddy began distributing Gand Crab, a potent strain of ransomware.
As noted in a post last week at the blog MyOnlineSecurity, the Gand Crab campaign used a variety of lures, including fake DHL shipping notices and phony AT&T e-fax alerts. The domains documented by MyOnlineSecurity all had their DNS records altered between Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 to allow the sending of email from Internet addresses tied to two ISPs identified in my original Jan. 22 report on the GoDaddy weakness.
“What makes these malware laden emails much more likely to be delivered is the fact that the sending domains all have a good reputation,” MyOnlineSecurity observed. “There are dozens, if not hundreds of domains involved in this particular campaign. Almost all the domains have been registered for many years, some for more than 10 years.”
A “passive DNS” lookup shows the DNS changes made by the spammers on Jan. 31 for one of the domains used in the Gand Crab spam campaign documented by MyOnlineSecurity. Image: Farsight Security.
In a statement provided to KrebsOnSecurity, GoDaddy said the company was confident the steps it took to address the problem were working as intended, and that GoDaddy had simply overlooked the domains abused in the recent GandCrab spam campaign.
“The domains used in the Gand Crab campaign were modified before then, but we missed them in our initial sweep,” GoDaddy spokesperson Dan Race said. “While we are otherwise confident of the mitigation steps we took to prevent the dangling DNS issue, we are working to identify any other domains that need to be fixed.”
“We do not believe it is possible for a person to hijack the DNS of one or more domains using the same tactics as used in the Spammy Bear and Gand Crab campaigns,” Race continued. “However, we are assessing if there are other methods that may be used to achieve the same results, and we continue our normal monitoring for account takeover. We have also set up a reporting alias at [email protected] to make it easier to report any suspicious activity or any details that might help our efforts to stop this kind of abuse.”
That email address is likely to receive quite a few tips in the short run. Virusbulletin editor Martijn Grooten this week published his analysis on a January 29 malware email campaign that came disguised as a shipping notice from UPS. Grooten said the spam intercepted from that campaign included links to an Internet address that was previously used to distribute GandCrab, and that virtually all of the domains seen sending the fake UPS notices used one of two pairs of DNS servers managed by GoDaddy.
“The majority of domains, which we think had probably had their DNS compromised, still point to the same IP address though,” Grooten wrote. That IP address is currently home to a Web site that sells stolen credit card data.
The fake UPS message used in a Jan. 29 Gand Crab malware spam campaign. Source: Virusbulletin.
Grooten told KrebsOnSecurity he suspects criminals may have succeeded at actually compromising several of GoDaddy’s hosted DNS servers. For one thing, he said, the same pair (sometimes two pairs) of name servers keep appearing in the same campaign.
“In quite a few campaigns we saw domains used that were alphabetically close, [and] there are other domains used that had moved away from GoDaddy before these campaigns, yet were still used,” Grooten said. “It’s also interesting to note that hundreds — and perhaps thousands — of domains had their DNS changed within a short period of time. Such a thing is hard to do if you have to log into individual accounts.”
GoDaddy did not respond to requests for comment about the possibility of a breach explaining the continuing abuse of its DNS services.
First emerging in early 2018, Gand Crab has been dubbed “the most popular multi-million dollar ransomware of the year.” Last week, KrebsOnSecurity was contacted by a company hit with Gand Crab in late January after an employee was taken in by what appears to be the same campaign detailed by Virusbulletin.
Charlene Price is co-owner of A.S. Price Mechanical, a small metal fabrication business in Gilbert, South Carolina. Price said an employee was tricked into infecting one of their hard drives with Gand Crab, which encrypted the drive and demanded $2,000 in bitcoin for a key needed to unlock the files.
While Price and her husband consulted with tech experts and debated what to do next, the extortionists doubled the ransom demand to $4,000.
Sites like nomoreransom.org distribute free tools and tutorials that can help some ransomware victims recover their files without paying a ransom demand, but those tools often only work with specific versions of a particular ransomware strain. Price said the tool nomoreransom.org made available for Gand Crab infections was unable to decrypt the files on her scrambled hard drive.
“It’s not fair or right and this is unjust,” Price said. “We have accepted the fact, for now, that we are just locked out our company’s information. We know nothing about this type of issue other than we have to pay it or just start again.”
from Technology News https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/02/crooks-continue-to-exploit-godaddy-hole/
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jennifersnyderca90 · 6 years ago
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Crooks Continue to Exploit GoDaddy Hole
Godaddy.com, the world’s largest domain name registrar, recently addressed an authentication weakness that cybercriminals were using to blast out spam through legitimate, dormant domains. But several more recent malware spam campaigns suggest GoDaddy’s fix hasn’t gone far enough, and that scammers likely still have a sizable arsenal of hijacked GoDaddy domains at their disposal.
On January 22, KrebsOnSecurity published research showing that crooks behind a series of massive sextortion and bomb threat spam campaigns throughout 2018 — an adversary that’s been dubbed “Spammy Bear” —  achieved an unusual amount of inbox delivery by exploiting a weakness at GoDaddy which allowed anyone to add a domain to their GoDaddy account without validating that they actually owned the domain.
Spammy Bear targeted dormant but otherwise legitimate domains that had one thing in common: They all at one time used GoDaddy’s hosted Domain Name System (DNS) service. Researcher Ron Guilmette discovered that Spammy Bear was able to hijack thousands of these dormant domains for spam simply by registering free accounts at GoDaddy and telling the company’s automated DNS service to allow the sending of email with those domains from an Internet address controlled by the spammers.
Very soon after that story ran, GoDaddy said it had put in place a fix for the problem, and had scrubbed more than 4,000 domain names used in the spam campaigns that were identified in my Jan. 22 story. But on or around February 1, a new spam campaign that leveraged similarly hijacked domains at GoDaddy began distributing Gand Crab, a potent strain of ransomware.
As noted in a post last week at the blog MyOnlineSecurity, the Gand Crab campaign used a variety of lures, including fake DHL shipping notices and phony AT&T e-fax alerts. The domains documented by MyOnlineSecurity all had their DNS records altered between Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 to allow the sending of email from Internet addresses tied to two ISPs identified in my original Jan. 22 report on the GoDaddy weakness.
“What makes these malware laden emails much more likely to be delivered is the fact that the sending domains all have a good reputation,” MyOnlineSecurity observed. “There are dozens, if not hundreds of domains involved in this particular campaign. Almost all the domains have been registered for many years, some for more than 10 years.”
A “passive DNS” lookup shows the DNS changes made by the spammers on Jan. 31 for one of the domains used in the Gand Crab spam campaign documented by MyOnlineSecurity. Image: Farsight Security.
In a statement provided to KrebsOnSecurity, GoDaddy said the company was confident the steps it took to address the problem were working as intended, and that GoDaddy had simply overlooked the domains abused in the recent GandCrab spam campaign.
“The domains used in the Gand Crab campaign were modified before then, but we missed them in our initial sweep,” GoDaddy spokesperson Dan Race said. “While we are otherwise confident of the mitigation steps we took to prevent the dangling DNS issue, we are working to identify any other domains that need to be fixed.”
“We do not believe it is possible for a person to hijack the DNS of one or more domains using the same tactics as used in the Spammy Bear and Gand Crab campaigns,” Race continued. “However, we are assessing if there are other methods that may be used to achieve the same results, and we continue our normal monitoring for account takeover. We have also set up a reporting alias at [email protected] to make it easier to report any suspicious activity or any details that might help our efforts to stop this kind of abuse.”
That email address is likely to receive quite a few tips in the short run. Virusbulletin editor Martijn Grooten this week published his analysis on a January 29 malware email campaign that came disguised as a shipping notice from UPS. Grooten said the spam intercepted from that campaign included links to an Internet address that was previously used to distribute GandCrab, and that virtually all of the domains seen sending the fake UPS notices used one of two pairs of DNS servers managed by GoDaddy.
“The majority of domains, which we think had probably had their DNS compromised, still point to the same IP address though,” Grooten wrote. That IP address is currently home to a Web site that sells stolen credit card data.
The fake UPS message used in a Jan. 29 Gand Crab malware spam campaign. Source: Virusbulletin.
Grooten told KrebsOnSecurity he suspects criminals may have succeeded at actually compromising several of GoDaddy’s hosted DNS servers. For one thing, he said, the same pair (sometimes two pairs) of name servers keep appearing in the same campaign.
“In quite a few campaigns we saw domains used that were alphabetically close, [and] there are other domains used that had moved away from GoDaddy before these campaigns, yet were still used,” Grooten said. “It’s also interesting to note that hundreds — and perhaps thousands — of domains had their DNS changed within a short period of time. Such a thing is hard to do if you have to log into individual accounts.”
GoDaddy did not respond to requests for comment about the possibility of a breach explaining the continuing abuse of its DNS services.
First emerging in early 2018, Gand Crab has been dubbed “the most popular multi-million dollar ransomware of the year.” Last week, KrebsOnSecurity was contacted by a company hit with Gand Crab in late January after an employee was taken in by what appears to be the same campaign detailed by Virusbulletin.
Charlene Price is co-owner of A.S. Price Mechanical, a small metal fabrication business in Gilbert, South Carolina. Price said an employee was tricked into infecting one of their hard drives with Gand Crab, which encrypted the drive and demanded $2,000 in bitcoin for a key needed to unlock the files.
While Price and her husband consulted with tech experts and debated what to do next, the extortionists doubled the ransom demand to $4,000.
Sites like nomoreransom.org distribute free tools and tutorials that can help some ransomware victims recover their files without paying a ransom demand, but those tools often only work with specific versions of a particular ransomware strain. Price said the tool nomoreransom.org made available for Gand Crab infections was unable to decrypt the files on her scrambled hard drive.
“It’s not fair or right and this is unjust,” Price said. “We have accepted the fact, for now, that we are just locked out our company’s information. We know nothing about this type of issue other than we have to pay it or just start again.”
from https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/02/crooks-continue-to-exploit-godaddy-hole/
0 notes
amberdscott2 · 6 years ago
Text
Crooks Continue to Exploit GoDaddy Hole
Godaddy.com, the world’s largest domain name registrar, recently addressed an authentication weakness that cybercriminals were using to blast out spam through legitimate, dormant domains. But several more recent malware spam campaigns suggest GoDaddy’s fix hasn’t gone far enough, and that scammers likely still have a sizable arsenal of hijacked GoDaddy domains at their disposal.
On January 22, KrebsOnSecurity published research showing that crooks behind a series of massive sextortion and bomb threat spam campaigns throughout 2018 — an adversary that’s been dubbed “Spammy Bear” —  achieved an unusual amount of inbox delivery by exploiting a weakness at GoDaddy which allowed anyone to add a domain to their GoDaddy account without validating that they actually owned the domain.
Spammy Bear targeted dormant but otherwise legitimate domains that had one thing in common: They all at one time used GoDaddy’s hosted Domain Name System (DNS) service. Researcher Ron Guilmette discovered that Spammy Bear was able to hijack thousands of these dormant domains for spam simply by registering free accounts at GoDaddy and telling the company’s automated DNS service to allow the sending of email with those domains from an Internet address controlled by the spammers.
Very soon after that story ran, GoDaddy said it had put in place a fix for the problem, and had scrubbed more than 4,000 domain names used in the spam campaigns that were identified in my Jan. 22 story. But on or around February 1, a new spam campaign that leveraged similarly hijacked domains at GoDaddy began distributing Gand Crab, a potent strain of ransomware.
As noted in a post last week at the blog MyOnlineSecurity, the Gand Crab campaign used a variety of lures, including fake DHL shipping notices and phony AT&T e-fax alerts. The domains documented by MyOnlineSecurity all had their DNS records altered between Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 to allow the sending of email from Internet addresses tied to two ISPs identified in my original Jan. 22 report on the GoDaddy weakness.
“What makes these malware laden emails much more likely to be delivered is the fact that the sending domains all have a good reputation,” MyOnlineSecurity observed. “There are dozens, if not hundreds of domains involved in this particular campaign. Almost all the domains have been registered for many years, some for more than 10 years.”
A “passive DNS” lookup shows the DNS changes made by the spammers on Jan. 31 for one of the domains used in the Gand Crab spam campaign documented by MyOnlineSecurity. Image: Farsight Security.
In a statement provided to KrebsOnSecurity, GoDaddy said the company was confident the steps it took to address the problem were working as intended, and that GoDaddy had simply overlooked the domains abused in the recent GandCrab spam campaign.
“The domains used in the Gand Crab campaign were modified before then, but we missed them in our initial sweep,” GoDaddy spokesperson Dan Race said. “While we are otherwise confident of the mitigation steps we took to prevent the dangling DNS issue, we are working to identify any other domains that need to be fixed.”
“We do not believe it is possible for a person to hijack the DNS of one or more domains using the same tactics as used in the Spammy Bear and Gand Crab campaigns,” Race continued. “However, we are assessing if there are other methods that may be used to achieve the same results, and we continue our normal monitoring for account takeover. We have also set up a reporting alias at [email protected] to make it easier to report any suspicious activity or any details that might help our efforts to stop this kind of abuse.”
That email address is likely to receive quite a few tips in the short run. Virusbulletin editor Martijn Grooten this week published his analysis on a January 29 malware email campaign that came disguised as a shipping notice from UPS. Grooten said the spam intercepted from that campaign included links to an Internet address that was previously used to distribute GandCrab, and that virtually all of the domains seen sending the fake UPS notices used one of two pairs of DNS servers managed by GoDaddy.
“The majority of domains, which we think had probably had their DNS compromised, still point to the same IP address though,” Grooten wrote. That IP address is currently home to a Web site that sells stolen credit card data.
The fake UPS message used in a Jan. 29 Gand Crab malware spam campaign. Source: Virusbulletin.
Grooten told KrebsOnSecurity he suspects criminals may have succeeded at actually compromising several of GoDaddy’s hosted DNS servers. For one thing, he said, the same pair (sometimes two pairs) of name servers keep appearing in the same campaign.
“In quite a few campaigns we saw domains used that were alphabetically close, [and] there are other domains used that had moved away from GoDaddy before these campaigns, yet were still used,” Grooten said. “It’s also interesting to note that hundreds — and perhaps thousands — of domains had their DNS changed within a short period of time. Such a thing is hard to do if you have to log into individual accounts.”
GoDaddy did not respond to requests for comment about the possibility of a breach explaining the continuing abuse of its DNS services.
First emerging in early 2018, Gand Crab has been dubbed “the most popular multi-million dollar ransomware of the year.” Last week, KrebsOnSecurity was contacted by a company hit with Gand Crab in late January after an employee was taken in by what appears to be the same campaign detailed by Virusbulletin.
Charlene Price is co-owner of A.S. Price Mechanical, a small metal fabrication business in Gilbert, South Carolina. Price said an employee was tricked into infecting one of their hard drives with Gand Crab, which encrypted the drive and demanded $2,000 in bitcoin for a key needed to unlock the files.
While Price and her husband consulted with tech experts and debated what to do next, the extortionists doubled the ransom demand to $4,000.
Sites like nomoreransom.org distribute free tools and tutorials that can help some ransomware victims recover their files without paying a ransom demand, but those tools often only work with specific versions of a particular ransomware strain. Price said the tool nomoreransom.org made available for Gand Crab infections was unable to decrypt the files on her scrambled hard drive.
“It’s not fair or right and this is unjust,” Price said. “We have accepted the fact, for now, that we are just locked out our company’s information. We know nothing about this type of issue other than we have to pay it or just start again.”
from Amber Scott Technology News https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/02/crooks-continue-to-exploit-godaddy-hole/
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simplemlmsponsoring · 6 years ago
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New Post has been published on http://simplemlmsponsoring.com/attraction-marketing-formula/email-marketing/8-domain-name-ownership-tips-for-your-web-design-clients/
8 domain name ownership tips for your web design clients
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Dealing with domain names can be a daunting task for your clients, especially if they are unaware of the subtleties of the domain management process. Domain name ownership requires a bit of knowledge in order to keep everything running smoothly and maintain a secure site.
Related: DNS records — A beginner’s guide
Follow these domain name ownership tips
Whether you’re working with first-time domain owners, or those with well-aged domains and websites, consider offering these tips to make their domain ownership as worry-free as possible:
Don’t select your registrar based on price. Consolidate your domain portfolio. Enable auto-renewal of your domains. Renew for several years at once. Register domains in your own name. Keep your domains locked. Pay for privacy. Keep your domain contact information up to date.
Let’s look at each tip in detail.
1. Don’t select your registrar based on price
Sound bite: No matter how attractive it might be, don’t select a registrar based on low price alone.
Selling points
Perspective: Registrars won’t all charge the same amount, but the difference is small, compared to the overall cost of the website project, so other factors play a role in the decision: consider customer support, responsiveness, and their full set of product offerings.
Process: Time spent on the phone with technical support can far outweigh any cost savings. For an item which runs on average between $10 and $20 per year, realize that just 10 additional minutes of your time on the phone with support will eat up any cost savings found via a cheaper registrar.
Related: How much does a domain name cost? and How to select a domain name registrar for your online venture
2. Consolidate your domain portfolio
Sound bite: Having all of your domains with one provider has important business and security advantages.
Consolidating your domain portfolio (and other products and services) means you can better manage all domains from one account, reduce the number of people who have access, and deal with one provider instead of many.
Selling points
Simplicity: With everything in one place, you can better manage all domains from one account.
Efficiency: Multiple registrars means remembering more logins and understanding different processes. Dealing with one provider simplifies support, billing and administration.
Security: Fewer vendors, accounts and logins means your domains will be more secure, in terms of who has access.
Continuity: If you ever sell your business, having all domains together makes a change of control easier.
Expertise: With all domains in one place that you trust, you know you can contact an expert who can solve all issues.
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Pro tip: All of the same points apply to consolidating multiple services with the same vendor. Why stop with domains, when you can consolidate hosting, email, SSLs, email marketing and more? Just replace “domains” in every point above with “products/services.”
Related: How to manage DNS and hosting for client WordPress sites
3. Enable auto-renewal of your domains
Sound bite: Auto-renewal helps ensure that your domain stays yours.
Selling points
Peace of mind: Auto-renewal relieves you from remembering when to renew, and avoids the challenges of manual renewal or recovery of an expired domain — which can be expensive, complicated and time-consuming.
Risk of missed communication: While we hope registrars notify customers of soon-to-expire domains, it’s also possible that email renewal notifications will land in your junk folder, get delivered to the wrong person, or even pass by unnoticed.
Pro tip: When credit cards are changed, be sure to update any vendors where auto-renewal has been enabled.
4. Renew for several years at once
Sound bite: “Set it and forget it” — and avoid worry about losing your domain.
Selling points
Peace of mind: You don’t have to think about renewal for a long time.
No potential financial loss: Even if you transfer your domain to another registrar later, the registration time paid for is not lost.
Fewer deceptive solicitations: There are folks who figure out your domain registration renewal date and send you phishing messages implying it’s time to pay them. If you accidentally pay someone other than your registrar, that money is lost. With a far-in-the-future expiration date, they don’t bother trying to scam you.
Related: How to protect your business from phishing scams
5. Register domains in your own name
Sound bite: You wouldn’t let someone else register the license plate for your car, put their name on your house deed, or be a cosigner on your bank account. The same logic applies to your domain name.
Selling points
Long-term reliability: Your friend, child, neighbor or web pro might say they are doing you a favor by setting up the domain name. Problems are likely to occur when they are no longer around to help, or forget to pay the renewal bills.
Challenges recovering control: The process to resolve domain ownership disputes can be time-consuming and difficult. Avoid it completely by insisting on owning your domain.
Related: Why getting a domain name is a startup essential — and how to do it right
6. Keep your domain locked
Sound bite: Do everything you can to prevent unauthorized changes to your domain. Selling point
Discourage bad actors: The process to transfer your domain from one registrar to another requires that the domain be unlocked, so this provides a bit of extra protection, should someone try to hijack your domain name.
Editor’s note: GoDaddy keeps domains registered through our company locked to keep them secure. Locked domains can’t be transferred to another registrar or account. When you make changes to a domain’s settings, such as updating nameservers or contact information, we automatically unlock and re-lock the domain name. If necessary, here’s how to unlock a domain.
7. Pay for domain privacy
Sound bite: Starting at less than $10 per year, the cost of private domain registration is a bargain.
Selling points
Protection: This is an easy way to protect your personal information. There’s enough data in a WHOIS domain record for someone to be intentionally malicious.
Avoid unwanted solicitations: Having your personal information available with your domain is an open invitation to salespeople, con artists, spammers and more. They’re especially eager to go after owners of new domains, offering SEO services, social media marketing, content optimization and more.
Prevent domain hijacking: Even with following tip No. 6, hiding your personal information makes it that much more difficult for someone to get key information that could help them hijack your account.
Related: How to protect your domain name
8. Keep your domain contact information up to date
Sound bite: Any changes to a domain (including renewal or transfer) will need to use the contact information associated with the domain, so keep it current.
Selling points
Security: Outdated contact information means someone might have access to your domain who should no longer have it.
Continued access: With out-of-date contact information on a domain, the chances of being locked out increase — for example, if the contact is a former employee and there is no longer access to their email.
Pro tip: If you receive a remind-o-gram from your registrar to check and confirm that your contact info is up to date, do it!
In conclusion
Let’s recap my favorite tips for helping clients ensure worry-free domain management:
Don’t select your registrar based on price. Consolidate your domain portfolio. Enable auto-renewal of your domains. Renew for several years at once. Register domains in your own name. Keep your domain locked. Pay for domain privacy. Keep your domain contact information up-to-date.
Keeping domain ownership free from strife isn’t difficult when you keep these tips in mind — and share them with your clients!
The post 8 domain name ownership tips for your web design clients appeared first on Garage.
Read more: godaddy.com
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SEO And Digital Marketing Company in Chennai
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From the SEO, webmaster and small business owner points of view, below are a few considerations that I look at when registering a domain name. I hope these tips help you to make the best decision for your business. If you are stuck please be sure to ask us for more details. Number 1: Choose one of the best registrars on the internet There are a number of service providers who will offer to register the domain for you. The problem being, these service providers are often not an actual ICANN approved registrar. This especially holds true for bundled domain and hosting packages. This will make it difficult to move your domain when you change hosting providers and prevent you from doing advanced configurations as you grow. Here is a list of accreditedregistrars. The top two on the list I recommend are promotemysales.com and Google. is the best place to buy a domain name because they are cheap, make it easy to sign up, offer reseller opportunities and also offer a way to purchase expiring domains (if you are in to that). WARNING: If you don’t choose a registrar, and decide to bundle the website domain in with your yearly hosting subscription, be prepared to face difficulties in transferring your domain when you want to grow. Number 2: Register the website domain name for 3-5 years If you have made the choice to start a business, register the domain for the foreseeable future. First time registration is usually the lowest cost you will pay, and by registering for 3-5 years upfront at that rate you will save money in the long run. It will also spare you the annual hassle of having to renew the domain and updating your credit card information when it changes. Number 3: Say Yes to Domain Privacy Protection The WHOIS database was once much, much more accessible. Still today if you register a domain any information you provide such as telephone, address, email and name will be publicly visible by default. By paying the additional privacy protection fee the registrar will hide your information. This prevents a high volume of spam emails, phone calls, snail mail, social engineering and phishing attacks. Number 4: Set up your new domain as non-www instead of www It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized how great a strategy this is. I now set up every domain as non-www. If you have a brand new domain, most online tutorials will tell you to setup the DNS as: However for a brand new campaign, the best long term option is: With mobile as the future and because most users will be too lazy to type in the WWW, setting up your DNS without it will cut down on redirects and reduce page load time on direct traffic. Number 5: Create a very secure password and save it somewhere you will not lose There are some horror stories about people stealing passwords and hijacking domains for ransom. Many of these are phishing and social engineering hacks. It looks pretty ugly. I’ve also lost passwords and went through the trouble of snail mailing a photocopy of my driver’s license to the registrar to get it recovered. The company refused to communicate by email or phone and insisted it be mailed to them. They were in New Zealand and it was a painstaking process. Number 6: Don’t try to register an SEO keyword domain Yes, you should choose a domain that is catchy and descriptive. Or make sure that the domain name contains yourbusinessname.com. Buy you should avoid purchasing a spam domain like payday-loans-4you.com (available). Your domain is your front door. Make sure it is something inviting, trustworthy, communicates the product, is short and will be something you want to own for the long term. Number 7: Get an HTTPs Certificate This can be done through the registrar and sometimes through your webhost. To utilize the benefits of the HTTPs certificate you will also need to build a website that accommodates SSL/TLS. Number 8: Register 1 domain name for the site not 10 or 20 Do not go to the trouble of registering multiple domain names and misspellings. This is not where you need to put your budget at the early stages of building your online presence. When you start to become larger and people begin to feed off of your brand’s success, this will make sense. Number 9: Get a few pages of the website set up today instead of waiting 6 months Don’t end up sitting on the new domain for 6 months. At least set up a one-page website with your information today. Small steps are fine when growing. After purchasing the domain, at the very least start a one-page website with your contact details, a few images and a description of your business. Number 10: Don’t spend too much A domain name costs about $8-$30 dollars a year to purchase. Many of the common phrases are already taken or are selling for thousands of dollars. Depending upon how much money you have in your marketing budget, feel free to splurge. But as a small business owner, it is going to be the work you put into creating great content assets and branding your site online and offline that will be the real success story. Number 11: Don’t Reinvent the wheel If you are registering a domain name to start an online store, consider first existing marketplaces to build momentum. Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, are examples of great places to sell your product. Before shelling out the cash to start an online store, try building momentum at these existing marketplaces and then when you have that momentum expand into your own online store. Need some help registering your domain and setting up a brand new website? Read these additional beginner tips. Read the full article
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aofirs · 7 years ago
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A comprehensive guide for choosing and setting up secure Wi-Fi.
Your router, that box sitting in a corner of your house giving you internet access, is in many ways more important than your laptop or mobile phone. It might not store any of your personal information directly, but sensitive data passes through it every time you access various online services and can be stolen or manipulated if the router is hacked.
A compromised router can also serve as a platform for attacking other devices on your local networks, such as your phone or laptop, or for launching denial-of-service attacks against internet websites. This can get your IP address blacklisted and can slow down your internet speed.
Because it's exposed directly to the outside world, your router is frequently targeted by automated scans, probes, and exploits, even if you don't see those attacks. And compared to your laptop or phone, your router doesn't have an antivirus program or other security software to protect it.
Unfortunately, most routers are black boxes and users have little control over their software and configurations, especially when it comes to devices supplied by internet service providers to their customers. That said, there are certain actions that users can take to considerably decrease the likelihood of their routers falling victim to automated attacks.
Many of those actions are quite basic, but others require a bit of technical knowledge and some understanding of networking concepts. For less technical users, it might simply be easier to buy a security-focused router with automatic updates such as the Eero, Google OnHub, Norton Core, Bitdefender Box, or F-Secure Sense. The downside is that those routers are expensive, some require annual subscriptions for certain services, and their level of customization is very limited. Ultimately, their users need to trust the vendors to do the right thing.
If you don’t want to get one of those, or already have a router, follow along for a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to secure it.
Choosing a router
If you prefer getting a cheaper router or modem that you can tweak your needs, avoid getting one from your ISP. Those devices are typically manufactured in bulk by companies in China and elsewhere and they come with customized firmware that the ISPs might not fully control. This means that security issues can take a very long time to fix and in some cases, they never get patched.
Some ISPs force users to use gateway devices they supply because they come pre-configured for remote assistance and there have been many cases when those remote management features have been poorly implemented, leaving devices open to hacking. Furthermore, users cannot disable remote access because they're often not given full administrative control over such devices.
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Whether users can be forced to use a particular modem or router by their ISP varies from country to country. In the US, regulations by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are supposed to prevent this, but it can still happen. There are also more subtle device lock-ins where ISPs allow users to install their own devices, but certain services like VoIP will not work without an ISP-supplied device.
If your internet provider doesn't allow you to bring your own device onto its network, at least ask if their device can be configured in bridge mode and if you can install your own router behind it. Bridge mode disables routing functionality in favor of your own device. Also, ask if your ISP's device is remotely managed and if you can opt out and disable that service.
The market for home and small office routers is very diverse so choosing the right router will depend on budget, the space that needs to be covered by its wireless signal, the type of internet connection you have, and other desired features like USB ports for attached storage, etc. However, once you get your list down to a few candidates, it's important to choose a device from a manufacturer that takes security seriously.
Research the company’s security track record: How did it handle vulnerabilities being discovered in its products in the past? How quickly did it release patches? Does it have a dedicated contact for handling security reports? Does it have a vulnerability disclosure policy or does it run a bug bounty program? Use Google to search for terms like “[vendor name] router vulnerability” or “[vendor name] router exploit” and read past reports from security researchers about how they interacted with those companies. Look at the disclosure timelines in those reports to see how fast the companies developed and released patches after being notified of a vulnerability.
It's also important to determine, if possible, how long a device will continue to receive firmware updates after you buy it. With product life cycles becoming shorter and shorter across the industry, you might end up buying a product released two years ago that will reach end-of-support in one year or in several months. And that's not something you want with a router.
Unfortunately, router vendors rarely publish this information on their websites, so obtaining it might involve calling or emailing the company’s support department in your respective country, as there are region-specific device models or hardware revisions with different support periods. You can also look at the firmware update history of the router you intend to buy or of a router from the manufacturer’s same line of products, to get an idea of what update frequency you can expect from the company.
Choose a device that can also run open-source community-maintained firmware like OpenWrt/LEDE because it's always good to have options and these third-party projects excel at providing support for older devices that manufacturers no longer update. You can check the device support list of such firmware projects—OpenWrt, LEDE, DD-WRT, AdvancedTomato, Asuswrt-Merlin—to inform your buying decision.
Once you have a router, it's time to make a few important settings. Start by reading the manual to find out how to connect to the device and access its administration interface. This is usually done from a computer through a web browser.
Change the default admin password
Never leave your router with the default administrator password as this is one of the most common reasons for compromises. Attackers use botnets to scan the entire internet for exposed routers and try to authenticate with publicly known default credentials or with weak and easy-to-guess passwords. Choose a strong password and, if given the option, also change the username to the default administrative account.
Last year, a botnet called Mirai enslaved over 250,000 routers, IP cameras, and other Internet-of-Things devices by connecting to them over Telnet and SSH with default or weak administrative credentials. The botnet was then used to launch some of the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded. More recently, a Mirai clone infected over 100,000 DSL models in Argentina and other countries.
Secure the administrative interface
Many routers allow users to expose the admin interface to the internet for remote administration and some older devices even have it configured this way by default. This is a very bad idea even if the admin password is changed because many of the vulnerabilities found in routers are located in their web-based management interfaces.
If you need remote administration for your router, read up on how to set up a virtual private network (VPN) server to securely connect into your local network from the internet and then perform management tasks through that connection. Your router might even have the option to act as a VPN server, but unless you understand how to configure VPNs, turning on that feature might be risky and could expose your network to additional attacks.
It's also a common misconception that if a router's administrative interface is not exposed to the internet, the device is safe. For a number of years now, attackers have been launching attacks against routers through cross-site request forgery (CSRF) techniques. Those attacks hijack users' browsers when visiting malicious or compromised websites and force them to send unauthorized requests to routers through local network connections.
In 2015, a researcher known as Kafeine detected a large-scale CSRF attack launched through malicious advertisements placed on legitimate websites. The attack code was capable of targeting over 40 different router models from various manufacturers and attempted to change their Domain Name System (DNS) settings through command injection exploits or through default administrative credentials.
By replacing the DNS servers configured on routers with rogue servers under their control, attackers can direct users to fake versions of the websites they are trying to visit. This is a powerful attack because there's no indication in the browser address bar that something is amiss unless the website uses the secure HTTPS protocol. Even then, attackers can use techniques such as TLS/SSL stripping and many users might not notice that the green padlock is missing. In 2014, DNS hijacking attacks through compromised home routers were used to phish online banking credentials from users in Poland and Brazil.
CSRF attacks usually try to locate routers over the local area network at common IP addresses like 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 that manufacturers configure by default. However, users can change the local IP address of their routers to something else, for example, 192.168.33.1 or even 192.168.33.22. There's no technical reason why the router should have the first address in an IP netblock and this simple change can stop many automated CSRF attacks in their tracks.
There are some other techniques that attackers could combine with CSRF to discover the LAN IP address of a router, even when it’s not the default one. However, some routers allow restricting access to their administrative interfaces by IP address.
If this option is available, you can configure the allowed IP address to be different than those automatically assigned by the router to your devices via the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). For example, configure your DHCP address pool to be from 192.168.33.50 to 192.168.33.100, but specify 192.168.33.101 as the IP address allowed to access the router's administrative interface.
This address will never be automatically assigned to a device, but you can manually configure your computer to temporarily use it whenever you need to make changes to your router's settings. After the changes are done, set your computer to automatically obtain an IP address via DHCP again.
Also, if possible, configure the router interface to use HTTPS and always access it from a private/incognito browser window, so that no authenticated session that could be abused via CSRF remains active in the browser. Don’t allow the browser to save the username and password either.
Shut down risky services
Services like Telnet and SSH (Secure Shell) that provide command-line access to devices should never be exposed to the internet and should also be disabled on the local network unless they're actually needed. In general, any service that’s not used should be disabled to reduce the attack surface.
Over the years, security researchers have found many undocumented "backdoor" accounts in routers that were accessible over Telnet or SSH and which provided full control over those devices. Since there's no way for a regular user to determine if such accounts exist in a router or not, disabling these services is the best course of action.
Another problematic service is Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), which allows devices to discover each other on networks and share their configurations so they can automatically set up services like data sharing and media streaming.
Many UPnP vulnerabilities have been found in home routers over the years, enabling attacks that ranged from sensitive information exposure to remote code execution leading to full compromise.
A router's UPnP service should never be exposed to the internet and, unless absolutely needed, it shouldn't be enabled on the local area network either. There's no simple way to tell if a router's UPnP implementation is vulnerable and the service can be used by other network devices to automatically punch holes through the router's firewall. That's how many IP cameras, baby monitors, and network-attached storage boxes become accessible on the internet without their owners knowing.
Other services that have been plagued by vulnerabilities and should be disabled include the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), the Home Network Administration Protocol (HNAP) and the Customer Premises Equipment WAN Management Protocol (CWMP), also known as TR-069.
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lbcybersecurity · 7 years ago
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CrunchyRoll hack delivers malware
Introduction
There's a Reddit post today with a PSA (Public Service Announcement) about Crunchyroll, a website that offers anime streaming, being hacked:
PSA : Don't enter crunchyroll.com at the moment, it seems they've been hacked.
As mentioned before, Crunchyroll offers anime streaming, and in their own words:
Enjoy your favorite anime & manga at the speed of Japan
The German Crunchyroll team has additionally issued the following warning:
And for our English-speaking audience Please DO NOT access our website at the current time. We are aware of the issues and are working on it
— Crunchyroll.de (@Crunchyroll_de) November 4, 2017
The official CrunchyRoll Twitter account has tweeted the following:
ATTENTION ALL CRUNCHYROLL USERS!!
Please DO NOT access our website at the current time. We are aware of the issues and are working on it!!
— Crunchyroll (@Crunchyroll) November 4, 2017
If you are only interested in how to remove this malware, scroll down to the disinfection/removal section.
Update:  CrunchyRoll has announced, after a few hours, that the issue is resolved:
We've just gotten the all-clear to say that https://t.co/x1dBCM9X9C is back online!! Thank you SO MUCH for your patience ~ ❤️ pic.twitter.com/FQRRHowvp6
— Crunchyroll (@Crunchyroll) November 4, 2017
However, I still advise you to scroll over to the disinfection or removal section. Any questions, feel free to leave a comment, or contact me on Twitter.
Analysis
So, what happens when you visit the CrunchyRoll website? Curently, you get a message the website has encountered an error:
Figure 1 - CrunchyRoll error page
Earlier today, the CrunchyRoll website was showing the following:
Figure 2 - Likely hacked CrunchyRoll website (Image source)
While the CrunchyRoll team claims it was a DNS hijack, I have (so far) found no evidence as to the validity of this claim, and it rather appears someone was able to hack the website.
Either way, while this is bad, CrunchyRoll took swift action by taking down the website, and an investigation is under way.
What happens if you click the 'Download now' button? A new file, called CrunchyViewer.exe, will be downloaded from the following IP address:
109.232.225[.]12
This IP appears to have hosted fake antivirus software or similar in the past:
Figure 3 - Older resolutions (2010)
The newly download file is seemingly the legitimate CrunchyViewer or Crunchyroll, but, near the end of the file, there is a chunk of Base64 encoded data appended, as seen in Figure 4:
Figure 4 - base64 encoded data (click to enlarge)
Using a Base64 decoder, we get a new file, called svchost.exe. This binary will place a copy of itself in the current user's %appdata%\roaming folder, for example:
C:\Users\Yourusername\AppData\Roaming\svchost.exe
This file will periodically call to its C2, or command-and-control server, and wait for any commands:
145.239.41[.]131
Currently, it does not appear the C2 responds on that specific port (6969), however, it is online.
There are claims the malware will additionally install ransomware - I have not observed this behaviour, but it is definitely possible once the C2 sends back (any) commands. More likely, it is a form of keylogger - malware that can record anything you type, and send it back to the attacker.
Svchost.exe will also create an autorun entry:
Figure 5 - newly created run key (click to enlarge)
This basically means the malware will start every time you (re)boot or restart the machine.
Just for fun, it appear that the miscreant's name, or the person responsible for creating the malware is named Ben, as appears from the debug paths:
C:\Users\Ben\Desktop\taiga-develop\bin\Debug\Taiga.pdb 
c:\users\ben\source\repos\svchost\Release\svchost.pdb
Taiga is 'A lightweight anime tracker for Windows'. This does not mean they are involved, but rather that 'Ben' has decided to include Taiga in the package.
Update: the developer of Taiga has included a fix for 'CrunchyViewer': https://github.com/erengy/taiga/issues/489
Disinfection/Removal
Disinfection is rather straightforward:
Remove the malicious "Java" Run key, by opening Regedit, and browsing to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Delete the 'Java' key;
Reboot your machine;
Remove the malicious binary, by navigating to: %appdata%\Roaming (for example: C:\Users\Yourusername\AppData\Roaming\)
Delete the 'svchost.exe' file.
Perform a scan with your installed antivirus product;
Perform a scan with an online antivirus, which is different from the one you have. Alternatively, perform a scan with Malwarebytes.
Change all your passwords if possible. Better be safe than sorry.
Prevention
Prevention  advise in general, which also pertains to CrunchyRoll's compromise:
Install an antivirus;
Keep your browser up-to-date;
Install NoScript if you have Firefox;
Install a 'well-rounded' ad-blocker, for example uBlock Origin (works with most browsers);
If a website you visit frequently suddenly looks completely different, or urges you to download whatever, be safe rather than sorry, and leave the website.
Additionally, try to Google or use social media to verify if anyone else is experiencing the same issue.
Conclusion
This hack shows that any website or organisation is, in theory, vulnerable to someone hijacking the website, and consequently download and install malware on a user's machine.
While it is uncertain what exactly happened, CrunchyRoll took correct action by taking the website down not too long after. At this point, it is best to monitor their Twitter account, and/or wait for an official statement.
If you have not executed the file, you should be safe. Follow the prevention tips above to stay secure.
IOCs
The post CrunchyRoll hack delivers malware appeared first on Security Boulevard.
from CrunchyRoll hack delivers malware
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bigscammers-blog · 8 years ago
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4 Effective Tips to Report Phishing Scams that Result in Data Pharming
One of the notorious ways of conducting phishing attacks on internet users is that of pharming. In fact, the terms phishing and pharming are used interchangeably, though they are different. While phishing involves coercing the victim to reveal personal and confidential information, pharming is more to do with misdirecting visitors of a genuine website, by implementing a set of cleverly crafted techniques. An overview of pharming and tips on reporting pharming has been outlined:
The pharming technique called DNS poisoning
As the term indicates, this con strategy manipulates the domain name server (DNS) so that genuine websites are correlated to fraudulent IP addresses. This involves the following steps:
The DNS server is poisoned by infusing false information
Phishing scammers ensure that legitimate domain names are connected to IP addresses that actually belong to the scammers’ website
Innocent victims are forced to enter phishing websites without their knowledge
DNS poisoning victims should proceed to report phishing scams at the earliest opportunity. Some tips towards effectiveness in exposing these scams are as under:
#1 Report phishing scams to internet service providers
Since majority of pharming scams take advantage of loopholes in internet security, it is worthwhile to report scams to the internet service providers. Due to an unprecedented increase in pharming attacks, the ISPs are enacting various anti-pharming moves like filtering and removing of fake websites, evolving sophisticated add-ins that will challenge pharming attacks.
#2 Report phishing scams to banks and financial institutions
Pharming puts financial transactions at risk. Without knowing that they are on a fake website which will resort to data pharming, people enter their payment details such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers etc., under the impression that they are on genuine websites. Once a pharming attack comes to light, one must report phishing scams to the bank for immediate locking of internet banking or credit cards.
#3 Report phishing scams to software experts
In case your business has been victimized for data pharming, it is time to report phishing scams to software experts who deal in development of modern anti-pharming software like Detect Safe Browsing, Server Side Software and open DNS, to mention a few, as effective safeguards to contain pharming and to prevent future attacks. Engaging a professional scam detection team is worthwhile so that both individuals and businesses are educated on simple steps like updating anti-virus, encryption of files and folders and usage of quality internet browsers, in order to prevent further damages from pharming.
#4 Report phishing scams on internet crime prevention forums
This is an effective way of sharing the manner in which the pharming attack originated. Most of these virtual platforms can connect victims to the right place for damage control against pharming attacks. This will save time and effort in reaching the appropriate legal entity in the country for reporting specific crimes of illegal data hijacking. Leafing through these webpages will reveal patterns of pharming attacks conducted in the past. Pharming is one of the phishing scams that can victimize millions of people at the same time.
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SEO And Digital Marketing Company in Chennai
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From the SEO, webmaster and small business owner points of view, below are a few considerations that I look at when registering a domain name. I hope these tips help you to make the best decision for your business. If you are stuck please be sure to ask us for more details. Number 1: Choose one of the best registrars on the internet There are a number of service providers who will offer to register the domain for you. The problem being, these service providers are often not an actual ICANN approved registrar. This especially holds true for bundled domain and hosting packages. This will make it difficult to move your domain when you change hosting providers and prevent you from doing advanced configurations as you grow. Here is a list of accreditedregistrars. The top two on the list I recommend are promotemysales.com and Google. is the best place to buy a domain name because they are cheap, make it easy to sign up, offer reseller opportunities and also offer a way to purchase expiring domains (if you are in to that). WARNING: If you don’t choose a registrar, and decide to bundle the website domain in with your yearly hosting subscription, be prepared to face difficulties in transferring your domain when you want to grow. Number 2: Register the website domain name for 3-5 years If you have made the choice to start a business, register the domain for the foreseeable future. First time registration is usually the lowest cost you will pay, and by registering for 3-5 years upfront at that rate you will save money in the long run. It will also spare you the annual hassle of having to renew the domain and updating your credit card information when it changes. Number 3: Say Yes to Domain Privacy Protection The WHOIS database was once much, much more accessible. Still today if you register a domain any information you provide such as telephone, address, email and name will be publicly visible by default. By paying the additional privacy protection fee the registrar will hide your information. This prevents a high volume of spam emails, phone calls, snail mail, social engineering and phishing attacks. Number 4: Set up your new domain as non-www instead of www It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized how great a strategy this is. I now set up every domain as non-www. If you have a brand new domain, most online tutorials will tell you to setup the DNS as: However for a brand new campaign, the best long term option is: With mobile as the future and because most users will be too lazy to type in the WWW, setting up your DNS without it will cut down on redirects and reduce page load time on direct traffic. Number 5: Create a very secure password and save it somewhere you will not lose There are some horror stories about people stealing passwords and hijacking domains for ransom. Many of these are phishing and social engineering hacks. It looks pretty ugly. I’ve also lost passwords and went through the trouble of snail mailing a photocopy of my driver’s license to the registrar to get it recovered. The company refused to communicate by email or phone and insisted it be mailed to them. They were in New Zealand and it was a painstaking process. Number 6: Don’t try to register an SEO keyword domain Yes, you should choose a domain that is catchy and descriptive. Or make sure that the domain name contains yourbusinessname.com. Buy you should avoid purchasing a spam domain like payday-loans-4you.com (available). Your domain is your front door. Make sure it is something inviting, trustworthy, communicates the product, is short and will be something you want to own for the long term. Number 7: Get an HTTPs Certificate This can be done through the registrar and sometimes through your webhost. To utilize the benefits of the HTTPs certificate you will also need to build a website that accommodates SSL/TLS. Number 8: Register 1 domain name for the site not 10 or 20 Do not go to the trouble of registering multiple domain names and misspellings. This is not where you need to put your budget at the early stages of building your online presence. When you start to become larger and people begin to feed off of your brand’s success, this will make sense. Number 9: Get a few pages of the website set up today instead of waiting 6 months Don’t end up sitting on the new domain for 6 months. At least set up a one-page website with your information today. Small steps are fine when growing. After purchasing the domain, at the very least start a one-page website with your contact details, a few images and a description of your business. Number 10: Don’t spend too much A domain name costs about $8-$30 dollars a year to purchase. Many of the common phrases are already taken or are selling for thousands of dollars. Depending upon how much money you have in your marketing budget, feel free to splurge. But as a small business owner, it is going to be the work you put into creating great content assets and branding your site online and offline that will be the real success story. Number 11: Don’t Reinvent the wheel If you are registering a domain name to start an online store, consider first existing marketplaces to build momentum. Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, are examples of great places to sell your product. Before shelling out the cash to start an online store, try building momentum at these existing marketplaces and then when you have that momentum expand into your own online store. Need some help registering your domain and setting up a brand new website? Read these additional beginner tips. Read the full article
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SEO And Digital Marketing Company in Chennai
Tumblr media
From the SEO, webmaster and small business owner points of view, below are a few considerations that I look at when registering a domain name. I hope these tips help you to make the best decision for your business. If you are stuck please be sure to ask us for more details. Number 1: Choose one of the best registrars on the internet There are a number of service providers who will offer to register the domain for you. The problem being, these service providers are often not an actual ICANN approved registrar. This especially holds true for bundled domain and hosting packages. This will make it difficult to move your domain when you change hosting providers and prevent you from doing advanced configurations as you grow. Here is a list of accreditedregistrars. The top two on the list I recommend are promotemysales.com and Google. is the best place to buy a domain name because they are cheap, make it easy to sign up, offer reseller opportunities and also offer a way to purchase expiring domains (if you are in to that). WARNING: If you don’t choose a registrar, and decide to bundle the website domain in with your yearly hosting subscription, be prepared to face difficulties in transferring your domain when you want to grow. Number 2: Register the website domain name for 3-5 years If you have made the choice to start a business, register the domain for the foreseeable future. First time registration is usually the lowest cost you will pay, and by registering for 3-5 years upfront at that rate you will save money in the long run. It will also spare you the annual hassle of having to renew the domain and updating your credit card information when it changes. Number 3: Say Yes to Domain Privacy Protection The WHOIS database was once much, much more accessible. Still today if you register a domain any information you provide such as telephone, address, email and name will be publicly visible by default. By paying the additional privacy protection fee the registrar will hide your information. This prevents a high volume of spam emails, phone calls, snail mail, social engineering and phishing attacks. Number 4: Set up your new domain as non-www instead of www It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized how great a strategy this is. I now set up every domain as non-www. If you have a brand new domain, most online tutorials will tell you to setup the DNS as: However for a brand new campaign, the best long term option is: With mobile as the future and because most users will be too lazy to type in the WWW, setting up your DNS without it will cut down on redirects and reduce page load time on direct traffic. Number 5: Create a very secure password and save it somewhere you will not lose There are some horror stories about people stealing passwords and hijacking domains for ransom. Many of these are phishing and social engineering hacks. It looks pretty ugly. I’ve also lost passwords and went through the trouble of snail mailing a photocopy of my driver’s license to the registrar to get it recovered. The company refused to communicate by email or phone and insisted it be mailed to them. They were in New Zealand and it was a painstaking process. Number 6: Don’t try to register an SEO keyword domain Yes, you should choose a domain that is catchy and descriptive. Or make sure that the domain name contains yourbusinessname.com. Buy you should avoid purchasing a spam domain like payday-loans-4you.com (available). Your domain is your front door. Make sure it is something inviting, trustworthy, communicates the product, is short and will be something you want to own for the long term. Number 7: Get an HTTPs Certificate This can be done through the registrar and sometimes through your webhost. To utilize the benefits of the HTTPs certificate you will also need to build a website that accommodates SSL/TLS. Number 8: Register 1 domain name for the site not 10 or 20 Do not go to the trouble of registering multiple domain names and misspellings. This is not where you need to put your budget at the early stages of building your online presence. When you start to become larger and people begin to feed off of your brand’s success, this will make sense. Number 9: Get a few pages of the website set up today instead of waiting 6 months Don’t end up sitting on the new domain for 6 months. At least set up a one-page website with your information today. Small steps are fine when growing. After purchasing the domain, at the very least start a one-page website with your contact details, a few images and a description of your business. Number 10: Don’t spend too much A domain name costs about $8-$30 dollars a year to purchase. Many of the common phrases are already taken or are selling for thousands of dollars. Depending upon how much money you have in your marketing budget, feel free to splurge. But as a small business owner, it is going to be the work you put into creating great content assets and branding your site online and offline that will be the real success story. Number 11: Don’t Reinvent the wheel If you are registering a domain name to start an online store, consider first existing marketplaces to build momentum. Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, are examples of great places to sell your product. Before shelling out the cash to start an online store, try building momentum at these existing marketplaces and then when you have that momentum expand into your own online store. Need some help registering your domain and setting up a brand new website? Read these additional beginner tips. Read the full article
0 notes
Text
SEO & DigitalMarketing  in Chennai
Tumblr media
    From the SEO, webmaster and small business owner points of view, below are a few considerations that I look at when registering a domain name. I hope these tips help you to make the best decision for your business. If you are stuck please be sure to ask us for more details. Number 1: Choose one of the best registrars on the internet There are a number of service providers who will offer to register the domain for you. The problem being, these service providers are often not an actual ICANN approved registrar. This especially holds true for bundled domain and hosting packages. This will make it difficult to move your domain when you change hosting providers and prevent you from doing advanced configurations as you grow. Here is a list of accredited registrars. The top two on the list I recommend are promotemysales.com and Google. is the best place to buy a domain name because they are cheap, make it easy to sign up, offer reseller opportunities and also offer a way to purchase expiring domains (if you are in to that). WARNING: If you don’t choose a registrar, and decide to bundle the website domain in with your yearly hosting subscription, be prepared to face difficulties in transferring your domain when you want to grow. Number 2: Register the website domain name for 3-5 years If you have made the choice to start a business, register the domain for the foreseeable future. First time registration is usually the lowest cost you will pay, and by registering for 3-5 years upfront at that rate you will save money in the long run. It will also spare you the annual hassle of having to renew the domain and updating your credit card information when it changes. Number 3: Say Yes to Domain Privacy Protection The WHOIS database was once much, much more accessible. Still today if you register a domain any information you provide such as telephone, address, email and name will be publicly visible by default. By paying the additional privacy protection fee the registrar will hide your information. This prevents a high volume of spam emails, phone calls, snail mail, social engineering and phishing attacks. Number 4: Set up your new domain as non-www instead of www It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized how great a strategy this is. I now set up every domain as non-www. If you have a brand new domain, most online tutorials will tell you to setup the DNS as: http://www.example.com However for a brand new campaign, the best long term option is: http://example.com With mobile as the future and because most users will be too lazy to type in the WWW, setting up your DNS without it will cut down on redirects and reduce page load time on direct traffic. Number 5: Create a very secure password and save it somewhere you will not lose There are some horror stories about people stealing passwords and hijacking domains for ransom. Many of these are phishing and social engineering hacks. It looks pretty ugly. I’ve also lost passwords and went through the trouble of snail mailing a photocopy of my driver’s license to the registrar to get it recovered. The company refused to communicate by email or phone and insisted it be mailed to them. They were in New Zealand and it was a painstaking process. Number 6: Don’t try to register an SEO keyword domain Yes, you should choose a domain that is catchy and descriptive. Or make sure that the domain name contains yourbusinessname.com. Buy you should avoid purchasing a spam domain like payday-loans-4you.com (available). Your domain is your front door. Make sure it is something inviting, trustworthy, communicates the product, is short and will be something you want to own for the long term. Number 7: Get an HTTPs Certificate This can be done through the registrar and sometimes through your webhost. To utilize the benefits of the HTTPs certificate you will also need to build a website that accommodates SSL/TLS. Number 8: Register 1 domain name for the site not 10 or 20 Do not go to the trouble of registering multiple domain names and misspellings. This is not where you need to put your budget at the early stages of building your online presence. When you start to become larger and people begin to feed off of your brand’s success, this will make sense. Number 9: Get a few pages of the website set up today instead of waiting 6 months Don’t end up sitting on the new domain for 6 months. At least set up a one-page website with your information today. Small steps are fine when growing. After purchasing the domain, at the very least start a one-page website with your contact details, a few images and a description of your business. Number 10: Don’t spend too much A domain name costs about $8-$30 dollars a year to purchase. Many of the common phrases are already taken or are selling for thousands of dollars. Depending upon how much money you have in your marketing budget, feel free to splurge. But as a small business owner, it is going to be the work you put into creating great content assets and branding your site online and offline that will be the real success story. Number 11: Don’t Reinvent the wheel If you are registering a domain name to start an online store, consider first existing marketplaces to build momentum. Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, are examples of great places to sell your product. Before shelling out the cash to start an online store, try building momentum at these existing marketplaces and then when you have that momentum expand into your own online store. Need some help registering your domain and setting up a brand new website? Read these additional beginner tips. Read the full article
0 notes