Malaysian Airlines’ recent hack attack by the Lizard Squad provides important reminders for everyone about internet security.

Dr. Ray Klump, professor and director of the Master of Information Security program at Lewis University, analyzed the recent Malaysian Airlines’ attack on its Domain Name Server.

A DNS maps server names to IP addresses, a necessary task because servers are ultimately accessed by number, not by name, he explained. When an internal DNS gets compromised, that mapping between names and numbers gets corrupted, and your site ends up serving the wrong pages to customers.

“This can be both embarrassing and disruptive. Unfortunately, DNS is one of those ‘mystery boxes’ that we assume runs like a top at all times. It is very important to include your DNS in your organization's monitoring and patching regimen, or you risk being the victim of these kinds of attacks."

Wednesday, January 28 is Data Privacy Day, sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance.

Visit http://www.lewisu.edu/experts/wordpress/index.php/faculty-experts/dr-ray-klump/ for more information about Dr. Ray Klump.

Visit http://www.lewisu.edu/experts/wordpress/index.php/author/klumpra/ to read his blogs about computer security, computer science and math.

Visit https://www.lewisu.edu/academics/msinfosec/ for more information about the Master of Information Security program at Lewis University.