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What is DNS ?

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the 'phone book' for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166. DNS is down, it doesn't matter if your servers, storage, and network are up – your Web site is not available. And yet for many IT and business professionals, DNS is a mystery.

DNS Featured Articles

Israelis' Credit Cards Latest Target of Middle Eastern Hackers

Hackers have taken aim at the credit cards belonging to about 15,000 Israelis, according to news reports and statements from Israel's central bank. The Associated Press reported the hackers involved in the attack claimed to be Saudis. It appears to be a "politically motivated attack," The AP said. YNET said the hackers called themselves "Group-XP" and claimed the attack was a "gift to the world for the New Year," which "would hurt the Zionist pocket," according to The AP. [ Read More ]

Encryption 101: From Compliance to Security and all Points Between

If you follow the news, you probably know what happened to Sony PlayStation Network. In which case you also know why companies need to implement solid encryption solutions. In case you don't know, hackers recently violated the entertainment giant's network, exposing personal information about millions of its PlayStation Network customers. This breach caused more than embarrassment. Sony was forced to shut down PSN for three weeks. As costly and humiliating as this was for Sony, however, it could… [ Read More ]

Elecsys Releases zONeGUARD

Elecsys Corp., has released patent-pending zONeGUARD, a new addition to the company's supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) telemetry product line. "zONeGUARD is an ideal solution to provide our customers with enhanced data and communications security while allowing the continued use of existing monitoring and control equipment with established data acquisition systems," said Scott Tampke, chief sales officer at Elecsy. [ Read More ]

APWG: Use of Subdomain Services for Crime Nearly Doubles in 2H 2010

As per a new survey released by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), the use of subdomain services by phishers nearly doubled in H2 2010. APWG released the survey at a conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Subdomain registration services, which are sold, managed, and regulated differently from regular domain names, offer customers subdomain "hosting accounts" beneath a domain name the provider owns. [ Read More ]

Nominum and Cablevision Argentina Sign Agreement for DNS and SKYE Network Protection Services

According to recent reports, Nominum's Vantio Intelligent DNS System has been selected by Cablevision Argentina to provide caching DNS services and SKYE Network Protection Service (NPS). [ Read More ]

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