Farsight Security and REN-ISAC Improve Cybersecurity for Universities and Other Higher Education Institutions

SAN MATEO, Calif., May 03, 2017 -- Today Farsight Security, Inc., the provider of the world’s largest real-time DNS threat intelligence, announced that the Research and Education Networking Information Sharing and Analysis Center (REN-ISAC), on behalf of its members, is using Farsight’s historical passive DNS database, DNSDB™, to detect and combat phishing, botnets and other targeted cyberattacks.   

REN-ISAC is integral to higher education’s strategy to improve cybersecurity. The information sharing community focuses on actionable intelligence for operational protection and response, including trusted representatives from over 500 member research and education institutions. Additionally, REN-ISAC serves as the computer security incident response team (CSIRT) supporting the U.S. research and education community at-large.

“Information security remains a top concern for higher education institutions. Threat actors increasingly are abusing the domain name system to gain a foothold into our member networks. As both a contributor and user of Farsight Security's DNSDB, REN-ISAC believes this technology plays a critical role in rapidly detecting and responding to malicious intent. Farsight passive DNS is an important tool in our security arsenal,” said Doug Pearson, Technical Director, REN-ISAC.

“REN-ISAC sets the gold standard for threat information sharing in the industry. Farsight Security is proud to help REN-ISAC protect its members from targeted attacks,” said Dr. Paul Vixie, CEO and Cofounder, Farsight Security, Inc.

The Need for Farsight DNSDB

Criminals often create and discard thousands of domain names, within minutes, to use for phishing and other "fly below the radar" cyberattacks. These domain names and IP addresses can provide investigators rich threat intelligence to advance their investigations, from when attackers entered a network to their motives and attack methods.

With more than 13 billion DNS resolutions collected since 2010 – all indexed for easy searches – Farsight DNSDB enables threat intelligence teams, security analysts and incident responders to search for specific hosts or subdomains within a suspicious domain and gain immediate insight into subordinate names living under the base domain. This information is critical to mitigating a cyberattack more quickly and accurately.

About REN-ISAC

The Research and Education Networking Information Sharing and Analysis Center (REN-ISAC) has two primary roles.  As the computer security incident response team (CSIRT) supporting the R&E community at-large, REN-ISAC serves the entire EDU space in the United States, including non-members.  In this role, REN-ISAC works with trusted third parties to notify higher education institutions of infected hosts and suspicious network traffic.

REN-ISAC also serves member institutions in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, and the United States. Through membership, institutions gain access to additional services and benefits.  For more information about the benefits of membership, visit www.ren-isac.net.

About Farsight Security, Inc.

Farsight Security, Inc. provides the world’s largest real-time threat intelligence on changes to the Internet. Leveraging proprietary technology with over 200,000 DNS resolutions/second, Farsight provides the Internet’s view of an organization and how it is changing purposely, inadvertently or maliciously. For more information on Farsight Security, Inc., please visit https://farsightsecurity.com.

Karen Burke 
Director of Corporate Communications 
Farsight Security, Inc. 
[email protected]