[alac] Wired News on alternative DNS lookup to block adfarms, phishers
Despite the misleading headline, this article is an interesting look at a new service offering "scrubbed" DNS lookup. <http://wired.com/news/technology/0,71345-0.html?tw=wn_index_1> (excerpt below). Note the last paragraph, which relates its early users' frustration with typosites of the type that are often caught and "parked." --Wendy Site-Lookup Service Foils Fraud By Ryan Singel| 02:00 AM Jul, 10, 2006 Few netizens think about the internet's domain name system: the architecture that invisibly translates a browser's request for, say, wikipedia.org into the numeric IP address where the site is hosted. But a new startup is hoping to make DNS into a household word and usher in an age where smarter DNS service is offered competitively, like e-mail service or spam filtering today. The OpenDNS system, which will open its servers to the public Monday, wants to be a more user-friendly name resolution service than those provided by ISPs, with technology to keep fraudulent sites out of its listings, correct some typos and help browsers look up web pages faster. Setting up an internet connection to use OpenDNS is about as difficult as setting up a POP3 e-mail account, and more advanced users can tinker with their router settings to make the change across a small network. In return, sites like the notoriously sluggish MySpace.com load significantly faster, thanks to the way OpenDNS caches IP addresses. Users who type "wordpres.sorg" or "craigslist.or" into their browser's address field are automatically routed to the correct address, instead of getting a 404 error page. Those who click on a link in a phishing e-mail that attempts to take them to a fake site and con them into entering their credit card number won't even make it to the website, if OpenDNS knows about it. OpenDNS can identify the sites both from monitoring abnormal DNS behavior and from relationships with services like Spamhaus that track online fraudsters. "In short, it's a safer and faster DNS service," says OpenDNS CEO David Ulevitch, who already runs a DNS company called EveryDNS that lets websites list their home address for free. ... Current beta testers, pulled from the EveryDNS.net, are also begging OpenDNS to redirect clear typos, such as "wikepedia.org" (instead of "wikipedia.org"), away from typo-squatters who set up pages with advertising to cash-in on errant keystrokes, something Ulevitch seems game to implement. -- Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@xxxxxxxxxxx Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html http://www.chillingeffects.org/ |