The third year of operation of the list of dangerous domains maintained by CERT Polska has passed. There are already over one hundred thousand entries on it – NASK informed. She also informed that the maintenance of the list will soon be regulated by law.
– The list of warnings against dangerous websites is one of the most effective tools to improve the security of the Polish digital space that has appeared in recent years. Most importantly, it is a tool that has proven itself and continues to prove itself in practice – emphasized NASK in its Thursday communiqué. It was issued when the CERT Polska team announced another record of 100,000. dangerous websites entered on the list of warnings kept since March 2020.
– I am glad that the tool created and operated by CERT Polska protects Poles so effectively. It will soon be additionally legally strengthened, because its functioning will be regulated in the Act on Combating Abuse in Electronic Communications, which is currently being worked on in the Sejm, said Sebastian Kondraszuk, head of the CERT Polska department operating within the structures of NASK National Research Institute.
The list exists, among others, thanks to the reports of Internet users
He thanked everyone who creates the website, people who send us notifications – via text messages, e-mails or the form on the incident.CERT.pl website. And those who use the list – internet service providers, communication operators. – Without our joint actions, without real cooperation, such a well-functioning list would not have been created, and the level of cybersecurity in Poland would certainly be lower – he stressed.
According to NASK experts, this 100,000 saved domains is really impressive, but what is really more important is the other effect of the functioning of this list.
– In 2022 alone, thanks to the introduction and use of this tool, nearly 21 million attempts to enter websites that phishing access data to bank accounts, personal data and passwords of social networking sites were blocked. attempts could have resulted in very severe, measurable harm to a specific user of the Polish Internet – but thanks to the list of warnings, CERT Polska was blocked in time. The social and financial amount of losses that could be prevented in this way is unimaginable.
How the list of dangerous CERT Polska domains works
The list is completely public, published on the CERT Polska website in many file formats. And also updated every five minutes. The use of warnings is fully voluntary, both in the case of commercial internet providers and private individuals. CSIRT NASK does not directly block any websites, i.e. entering them on the list of warnings does not automatically block them. Internet service providers do this – they work in favor of their own customers, increasing their level of security. The domains that can be included in the list of warnings are very precisely defined. It’s all about dangerous websites that can phish for personal information, bank account credentials or social networking sites. The rules for appealing against the decision to place a selected domain on the list of warnings have also been precisely defined. The set of dangerous domains is created primarily on the basis of voluntary applications, which are registered by CERT Polska, and then – before being included on the list – very carefully, in many stages, verified. The tool, which is the list of warnings against dangerous sites, offers its full functionality to everyone, completely free of charge.
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