A DNS cache poisoning attack aims to store falsely assigned IP addresses and names on the target IT system. It exploits the fact that DNS servers cache the domain information they receive for a certain period of time, which can facilitate the widespread dissemination of fake data. If corresponding requests are then sent to a manipulated DNS server, this server will return falsified data. The receiver of the response caches the falsified data, and in doing so “poisons” its own cache, as well. The length of time after which stored data expires (time to live, or TTL) can be configured. If a manipulated address is requested from a resolving DNS server, it will not send a request to a different DNS server until the set length of time has expired. Manipulated DNS information can thus persist for a long time, even if it has already been corrected on the DNS server originally attacked. If, for example, an attacker is able to take over the name resolution for a domain by manipulating the entries in such a way that requests will be sent to the attacker's DNS servers, all the respective sub-domains will automatically be affected, as well. DNS cache poisoning attacks are often performed with the objective of diverting requests to malicious servers.