What is Phishing?
Phishing is a fraudulent act committed by individuals who want to gain access to sensitive personal information for an array of purposes. Contrary to what many believe one of the best ways you can protect yourself from phishing isn’t to install defense programs or increase security measures, but instead to learn how to recognize a phish.
The most common form of phishing requires the use of email. These emails usually appear to originate from a well organized financial establishment and ask for personal information that if placed in the wrong hands automatically puts you at great risk. A “legitimate” phish will most likely ask you at one point and time for your credit card number, social security number, account number or password. Many times phishing effort s seem to come from sites with which you do not even have an account with, giving you all the more evidence which will allow you to discover if indeed the email is a phishing attempt. It isn’t uncommon for a phishing email to instruct you to click on a link which will redirect you to a site where you’re expected to enter personal information. Authentic organizations should and will never ask you to confirm this information via email.
DNS Root Name Servers Explained
A DNS Root Name server is a server that answers on behalf of the DNS root Zone, and redirects requirements for a given TLD (Top Level Domain) to that particular TLD’s name servers. The term “root name server” is normally used to describe the thirteen organizations often referred to as the “root server operators”. They implement the root namespace domain for the Internet’s official universal implementation of the Domain Name System. The original thirteen members in alphabetical order are; A - VeriSign Global Registry Services ,B - Information Sciences Institute ,C - Cogent Communications ,D - University of Maryland ,E - NASA Ames Research Center ,F - Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ,G - U.S. DOD Network Information Center ,H - U.S. Army Research Lab ,I - Autonomica/NORDUnet ,J - VeriSign Global Registry Services ,K - RIPE NCC ,L - ICANN ,M - WIDE Project. Global
Incidentally, the letters A-M represent the 13 numeric IPv4 addresses at which the service is provided. Each operator is tasked with providing consistent DNS service to the Internet from their specific address.
The empty string after the final dot in a domain name is called the root domain, and all other domains like .org, .net, etc are enclosed within the root domain. A computer connected to the Internet resolves a domain name by asking every name server about the element to its left working its way from the right. The root name servers know which servers are responsible for the top-level domains like .com and .org, which have their own servers. These servers then query name servers responsible for particular domain names, which in turn answers queries for IP addresses of sub domains.
