Also known as DNS poisoning, pharming is a technically sophisticated form of phishing involving the internet’s domain name system (DNS). Pharming reroutes legitimate web traffic to a spoofed page without the user’s knowledge, often to steal valuable information.
Did You Know: DNS acts as the phonebook of the internet, taking a long string of numbers—the IP address—and translating it to the URLs we all know, like webroot.com. When cybercriminals interfere with this communication, it’s known as DNS poisoning.
Operation Sea Turtle
Given the level of technical sophistication it requires, DNS poisoning is often carried out by state-backed hackers. In one of the most famous examples, a group known by the code name "Sea Turtle" used the technique to spy on governmental intelligence agencies across the Middle East and North Africa. The attack was announced by the private intelligence group Cisco Talos in 2019.