Prevent phishing attacks with OpenDNS, ‘Minority Report’-style

‘);$(‘#’ + IDG.GPT.getIMUSlotName()).responsiveAd({screenSize:’971 1115′, scriptTags: []});//–“;
var adDivString = “”;
placementDiff = applyInsert($(this), adDivString);
if (debug) {
console.log(“Just placed an ad and the placementDiff is: ” + placementDiff);
}
placementTarget = cumulativeHeight + placementDiff + interModuleHeight + adHeightBuffer;
}
else {
var moduleDivString = “”;
var elementId = “drr-mod-“+moduleCounter;
moduleDivString = “”;
modules.push(elementId);

placementDiff = applyInsert($(this), moduleDivString);
if (debug) {
console.log(“Just placed a module and the placementDiff is: ” + placementDiff);
}
placementTarget = cumulativeHeight + placementDiff + interModuleHeight + moduleHeightBuffer;
moduleCounter++;
}
loopCounter++;
}
// Avoid placing elements too soon due to non-large figures inflating the cumulative height
if ($(this).is(“figure”) !$(this).is(“figure.large”)) {
cumulativeHeight += grafHeight;
}
else {
cumulativeHeight += $(this).height() + grafHeight;
}
}
});

// clone Related Stories module m-15 to come in after 2nd para in article body for mobile breakpoint display
var $relatedStories = $(‘.related-promo-wrapper’);
if ($relatedStories.length) {
var $relatedStoriesClone = $relatedStories.clone();
$relatedStoriesClone.insertAfter( “#drr-container p:eq(1)”);
}

var $insiderPromo = $(‘.insider-promo-wrapper’);
if ($insiderPromo.length) {
var $insiderPromoClone = $insiderPromo.clone();
$insiderPromoClone.insertAfter( “#drr-container p:eq(1)”);
}

//place left side element
cumulativeHeight = 0;
var leftPlacementTarget = tagHeight = leftPlacementTarget) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“congratulations… we’ve passed the initial start point”);
}
if (leftPlacementIndex == null) {
//it’s not good enough to not be a left avoid – it also shouldn’t be a

with an immediately preceding small or medium image left avoid.
if (!isLeftAvoid($(this)) noPrevFigures($(this)) ) {
leftPlacementIndex = $(this).index();
$leftPlacementElement = $(this);
leftPlacementLookaheadStart = cumulativeHeight;
if (debug) {
console.log(“is not a left avoid and no prev figures. ########## set placementIndex (“+leftPlacementIndex+”) and lookaheadStart (“+leftPlacementLookaheadStart+”) ##########”);
}
} else {
if (debug) {
console.log(“is a left avoid or has previous figures. continue”);
}
}
} else {
if (debug) {
console.log(“#### leftPlacementIndex already set to “+leftPlacementIndex+”. looking ahead…”);
}
//not null; has been set
if ((cumulativeHeight – leftPlacementLookaheadStart) leftIntervalHeight) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“###### THRESHOLD REACHED. LOOKAHEAD COMPLETE. END ###### (cumulativeHeight – leftPlacementLookaheadStart) (“+(cumulativeHeight-leftPlacementLookaheadStart)+”) leftIntervalHeight (“+leftIntervalHeight+”).”);
}
return false;
} else {
if (debug) {
console.log(“threshold not reached: (cumulativeHeight – leftPlacementLookaheadStart) (“+(cumulativeHeight-leftPlacementLookaheadStart)+”) tags
if (!(isLeftAvoid($(this)) ($(this).hasClass(‘small’) || $(this).hasClass(‘inline-small’) || $(this).hasClass(‘medium’) || $(this).hasClass(‘inline-medium’) || $(this).hasClass(‘apart’) ))) {
cumulativeHeight += $(this).height() + grafHeight;
}
if (debug) {
console.log(“——————– set cumulativeHeight(“+cumulativeHeight+”) —————“);
console.log(“”);
}
}
});
}

if (leftPlacementIndex != null elementNotNearEnd($leftPlacementElement, leftPixelWindow)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(” insert into index “+leftPlacementIndex);
}
$(“#drr-container”).children().eq(leftPlacementIndex).before(“

“);
}

IDG.GPT.trackOmniture();

// Add Right rail module content
for (var i=0; i= 0) {
var a = document.createElement(‘a’);
a.href = document.referrer;
var uriParts = a.pathname.split(‘/’);
a = ”;
if (typeof uriParts[3] == ‘undefined’) {
epoParams += “typeId=” + defaultTypeId + “referrer=home”; // default is ‘home’ behavior
}
else {
var refCatSlug = uriParts[3];
epoParams += “catSlug=” + refCatSlug + “referrer=article”;
}
}
// From SEARCH: Show article with catId same as current article
else if (document.referrer.indexOf(“google”) = 0 || document.referrer.indexOf(“yahoo”) = 0 || document.referrer.indexOf(“bing”) = 0) {
var categories = [2206, 3858, 3256, 3518, 3551];
if (categories instanceof Array categories.length 0) {
var primaryCatId = categories[0];
epoParams += “catId=” + primaryCatId + “referrer=search”;
}
else {
epoParams += “typeId=” + defaultTypeId + “referrer=home”; // default is ‘home’ behavior
}
}
// Default is to show like coming from homepage
else {

epoParams += “typeId=” + defaultTypeId + “referrer=home”;
// default is ‘home’ behavior
}
return epoParams;
}

/**
* @param jqo Original jquery object target
* @param divString The div to be inserted.
* @return Difference in height between original placement target and final target.
* Checks first 6 elements for an allowable placement (600 pixel window).
* If none, check nearby for elements that are not right avoids.
* If none, place element before current target.
*/
function applyInsert(jqo, divString) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“applyInsert at top and jqo index is: ” + jqo.index());
}

for (var i=0; i 0) {
children = $(“#drr-container”).children().slice(jqo.index(), allowElement.index() );
}
else {
children = $(“#drr-container”).children().slice(allowElement.index(), jqo.index());

}
if (children != null) {
children.each(function(i) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“About to add this element’s height to heigh diff offset”);
console.log($(this));
}
height += $(this).height() + grafHeight;
});
}
if (offset 300) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found pre. return true”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.is(“figure”) jqo.hasClass(‘large’)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found figure.large return true”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.is(“figure”) jqo.hasClass(‘medium’) jqo.hasClass(‘inline’)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found figure has class medium and inline.”);
}
return true;
}

if (jqo.is(‘div’) jqo.hasClass(‘table-wrapper’)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found div with class table-wrapper”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.is(‘aside’)) {
if (jqo.hasClass(‘sidebar’) !jqo.hasClass(‘medium’)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found aside with class sidebar, without class medium”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.hasClass(‘statsTable’)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found aside with class statsTable”);
}
return true;
}
}
if (jqo.hasClass(‘download-asset’)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found class download-asset return true”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.hasClass(‘tableLarge’)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found class tableLarge return true”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.hasClass(‘reject’)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found class reject. return true”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.is(‘table’) jqo.hasClass(‘scorecard’)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightAvoid: found div with class scorecard”);
}
return true;
}
}
return false;
}

// Return true if element has class ‘reject’: will not place drr modules/ads next to these elements
function isRightReject(jqo) {
console.log(“in isRightReject”);
if (jqo != null) {
if (jqo.hasClass(“reject”)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isRightReject: found ‘reject’ class”);
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
return false;
}

// Returns true if height of all elements after this one is more than 500; false otherwise
function elementNotNearEnd(element, pixelWindow) {
if (pixelWindow == null) {
pixelWindow = 500;
}
if (element == null) {
return false;
}
var remainingHeight = 0;
var children = $(“#drr-container”).children().slice(element.index());
if (children == null) {
return false;
}
children.each(function(i){
remainingHeight += $(this).height();
});
if ( remainingHeight pixelWindow) {
return true;
}
else {
if (debug) {
console.log(“Element too close to end. Remaining height is: ” + remainingHeight + ” and window is ” + pixelWindow);
}
return false;
}
}

/**
* Return true if need to avoid this element when placing left module.
*/
function isLeftAvoid(jqo) {
if (jqo.is(“figure”)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isLeftAvoid: found figure. return true”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.is(“aside.pullquote”)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isLeftAvoid: found pullquote. return true”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.is(“pre”)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isLeftAvoid: found pre. return true”);
}
return true;
}
if (jqo.is(“div.gist”)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isLeftAvoid: found github code block. return true”);
}
return true;
}

if (jqo.is(“aside”) jqo.hasClass(“sidebar”) jqo.hasClass(“medium”)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isLeftAvoid: found medium sidebar. return true”);
}
return true;
}

if (jqo.hasClass(“statsTable”)) {
if (debug) {
console.log(“isLeftAvoid: found class statsTable. return true”);
}
return true;
}
return false;
}

/**
* return true if there are no figures before the target placement that might bleed down into placement element
*/
function noPrevFigures($originalTarget) {
var targetIndex = $originalTarget.index();
var numElementsLookBack = 5;
var figureIndex = null;
var figureHeight = null;
var startIndex = targetIndex – numElementsLookBack

Personal and corporate security are under a microscope these days. Hacker attacks have led to major breaches in the corporate sector: Home Depot, Target, Kmart, JPMorgan Chase, Sony Pictures, and other companies have had massive amounts of user data stolen. That stolen data is used by criminals to phish the users by using the stolen data to craft convincing email that carries malware designed to steal financial data from those users.

We can train people all day to be wary of emails, but the more data the attacker has on the user, the harder it is is to distinguish a real message from a phishing attack. Fortunately, we now have the technology and tools needed to detect and blunt phishing attacks sooner.

Signature-based products like firewall and endpoint defenses are critical to blocking or containing phishing attacks. But you might be missing a crucial element at a different layer of your security defenses: OpenDNS.

The next layer to your security solution should be focused at the DNS level. OpenDNS, a technology that’s already used extensively, has introduced a new tactic to better thwart phishing attacks: The company behind OpenDNS, also called OpenDNS, says it has create a “secret sauce” of big data analytics to predict in advance where phishing attacks are going to happen and block them automatically.

If that sounds a little like “Minority Report“-style futurism, keep in mind, I’m not talking about a replacement for traditional tools — OpenDNS is an additional layer of defense. 

I’ve been a fan of OpenDNS for quite some time. I first noticed it in routers as a form of parental protection a few years back. I’ve used it in my home ever since. It’s a free service (though I pay a small fee for the  enhanced features like stats and support) that filters content by blocking it at the source: at the DNS side. It’s brilliantly simple and a fantastic way to protect every Internet-connected device in my home.

But OpenDNS is much, much more than a parental-control filtering tool.

OpenDNS has an enterprise security side that draws upon extensive visibility into Internet traffic to predict, protect against, and prevent attacks. OpenDNS’s OpenDNS Graph capability has data on about 2 percent of Internet requests, covering 50 million active users daily across 160 countries with 50 billion daily Internet requests. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s a tremendous amount of data to analyze for threat intelligence via machine learning.

As a result, to cite one example, OpenDNS can see trends of bots calling home, then block them regardless of port, protocol, or app used. Even if a phishing attack evaded your malware filters — or if a user is on a home network without such sophisticated filters — and fooled a user into opening an email and clicking a link to a phishing site, OpenDNS could prevent the phishing site from loading. 

When it comes to security, we need to be vigilant on multiple fronts, of which DNS has been largely ignored. It’s time to change that, especially now that the power of big data analytics is being applied to threat detection.

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