DNS Changer: Indian ISPs say all's fine

MUMBAI, INDIA: As the devastating malware DNS Changer becomes active today to disrupt Internet services and computing devices globally, Indian Internet service providers (ISPs) are geared up to protect IT infrastructure, networks, devices and safeguard customers.

For instance, Mumbai-based Tikona Digital Networks (TDN) has been closely observing the malware for the past six months since it was first reported by FBI last November.

According to Tarun Kumar, Tikona's CTO, from January onwards the company's technical team has been thoroughly scanning and monitoring all internal IT infrastructure, networks as well as devices supplied to customers such as modems, routers and Wi-Fi routers.

“So far we haven't found or detected any infection from the malware on our devices and networks. In case, if there's any infected device, our system will automatically stop Internet service to that device and henceforth it will restrict malware spared to other computing devices,” Kumar says.

“Besides, we have given free anti-virus to all our subscribers to effectively encounter the malware attack but so far there are no complaints or reports from users on the impact of DNS Changer. And our technical teams are closely monitoring our networks and equipment round the clock,” Kumar adds.

While Chennai-based Mural Venkatesan, Sify's product specialist — Security, points out that most enterprises and service providers in India follow a very stringent enterprise security procedures.

“We are following all security procedures and deployed security solutions such as anti-malware, anti-spam and others protection tools. Besides, we are monitoring 24x7 our networks for malware infections and DDoS but there are no reports for DNS Changer infecting our customers,” Venkatesan says.

Interestingly, Venkatesan stresses that besides the IT, ITeS and BPO industry, which are well-equipped with IT security solutions and procedures, even the end-users of computers and Internet today have the basic knowledge and understanding of virus and malware in India.

 “Depending on basic knowledge and understanding, to an extent users are using security products such free anti-virus to protect against malware attacks,” Venkatesan adds.

Similarly, Mumbai-based Broadband Pacenet India Pvt Ltd, a part of DigiCable, has also strengthened its Internet security against the DNS Changer malware. Mukundan Raghavan, Broadband Pacenet's general manager — Technical, said that the main DNS security threats include Foot-printing, Redirection, Data Modification and Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS). 

“To curb such threats we have incorporated DNS security into our DNS namespace design, reviewed the default DNS Server service security settings and applied Active Directory security features on the DNS Server service which is running on a domain controller,” says Raghavan.

“We also reviewed the default DNS zone security settings, applied secure dynamic updates and Active Directory security features, along with the DNS resource records,” explains Raghavan.

Further, Raghavan adds that their technical team is constantly monitoring the networks and Internet gateways and the company has sent SMSes to customers asking to use anti-virus or security products.

Given the well-preparedness, most ISPs believe the impact of DNS Changer malware will be less in India compared to the US and other developed countries.

 “We don't see immediate impact of the malware directing the users to rouge DNS and are not pressing the panic button as we haven't seen or heard such complaints from users. But will have to wait for next 2 or 3 days to see if there was any impact,” says Venkatesan. 

Even Kumar, confidently says, “We don't see any impact today or tomorrow or in coming days as we are monitoring the situation regularly.”

However, Prashant Mali, advocate and cyber security expert observers, “Corporates which have web centric business would be the most to be impacted along with portals related to information, government and e-commerce websites would be affected and can cause problems to Indian IT users.” 

Given the time zone difference between India and the US, the actual aftermath of DNS Changer malware will be known known in coming days and the next 24 to 48 hours are going to be very crucial for the ISPs and the Internet ecosystem, including its vast population of Internet users world over.