DNS records rarely change once a site is stable — which makes an unexpected change a strong, early signal of either a mistake or a security incident.
What an alert on DNS changes catches
- Accidental changes made by a teammate or during a registrar UI update
- Unauthorized changes from a compromised registrar account
- MX record changes that would silently redirect your incoming email elsewhere
Setting it up
Most monitoring tools can periodically snapshot your DNS records and alert on any diff from the last known-good state — this is a lightweight check that catches high-impact incidents other monitoring (like uptime checks) won’t, since a DNS change can redirect traffic without your actual server ever going down.
FAQ
Would a DNS hijack even show up on a normal uptime monitor?
Not necessarily — if the attacker points your domain at a working (malicious) server, uptime checks may report the site as "up" the whole time.