No Sandwich, No Security: What This Week’s Lunch Taught Me About DNS Blind Spots
Like many shoppers in the UK this week, I found myself staring at half-empty shelves in my local grocery store. In a small but frustrating twist, my usual sandwich, chicken mayo on malted bread, was nowhere to be found. The disruption wasn’t just about lunchtime preferences; it was part of a broader impact from cyberattacks that hit major UK retailers, including Co-op and Marks & Spencer.
At first glance, a missing sandwich and a ransomware incident may seem unrelated. But standing in that aisle, it hit me: this wasn’t just about one vulnerability or one team. It was a breakdown in layered defense, and a reminder that, despite having firewalls, endpoint tools, and SIEMs, many organizations still have critical visibility gaps. One of the most overlooked is DNS.
The Real Entry Point: Social Engineering
According to early reports, the attackers didn’t need to brute-force their way in. Instead, they used social engineering, impersonating employees and manipulating help desks into resetting credentials. It’s a reminder of the human side of cyber risk: a highly effective, low-tech tactic that can bypass even the most advanced tools.
Sure, it’s easy to say “we need more training” after an incident like this, and we do. But the more pressing question is: what happens next, after that first click or password reset?
Once attackers gain a foothold, they need to move, communicate, and exfiltrate data. And in almost every case, they use DNS to do it, because it’s trusted, pervasive, and often under-monitored.
If a comprehensive DNS security solution like Infoblox had been in place and fully operational, the outcome might have been very different. Here’s why:
- Detection of C2 Traffic: Infoblox identifies suspicious DNS queries to command-and-control domains, including those using fast-flux or newly registered domains—common tactics in ransomware and phishing attacks.
- DNS Tunneling Prevention: Attackers often exfiltrate data through covert DNS channels. Infoblox detects and blocks these, even when traditional network tools miss them.
- Lookalike Domain Blocking: Adversaries frequently use typosquatting or spoofed internal domains to trick users. Infoblox spots and prevents access to these before damage occurs.
- Integrated Threat Intelligence: By combining internal DNS data with global threat intelligence, organizations can detect attacker infrastructure earlier—not just react to known threats.
In the case of these retail breaches, DNS logs could have been the early warning signs—indicating credential abuse, lateral movement, or anomalous data activity. Instead of finding out from a ransom note or media headlines, security teams could’ve seen the threat building and taken action.