What is DNS protection, and is it crucial?

Here is an overview that one needs to know about the benefits of secure DNS servers.

What is DNS?

The Domain Name System (DNS) converts human-readable domains such as ABCgroup.com into an IP address such as 162.210.72.65 to connect to users.

It enables the Internet to be used for humans so that they do not have to memorize a series of numbers for each website they want to visit. It can also be exploited as an intermediary layer between the Internet and the users.

There are innumerable servers that run DNS on the Internet. Many users use DNS servers provided by their ISP, but they need not have to use them. Instead, the users can use the secured DNS, which is free or paid. DNS Protection is an excellent way to provide increased security.

Why is DNS protection critical?

Early this year, the Homeland Security department issued an emergency directive asking the US businesses to take appropriate steps to defend and protect against DNS hijacking.

As per the directive, the evidence of DNS hijacking was uncovered. DNS hijacking is a process by which the hackers redirect a user’s traffic to a destination other than its intended destination.

DNS protection helps protect home networks and commercial networks. Many people have spilled over their professional lives into their personal space, and the dividing line has become blurred. Nowadays, especially in corporate work, employees are connected 24/7 on laptops, emails, mobile phones, and business WhatsApp groups. There are no more than nine to five job concepts. Employees who work after office hours from home need to protect their home networks.

A secured DNS solution is essential for improving BYOD (bring your device) policies, securing data inside and outside the office, and providing additional benefits.

A secure DNS solution provides the following:

• Adult sites and other unwanted sites can be filtered using the Content filtering mode that blocks these sites. This process does not require any software installed on mobile devices and computers. It works using the DNS, which substantially benefits other filtering solutions. Content filtering reduces the chances of users visiting a “bad neighborhood" that could lead to malicious attacks.
• Blocking specific sites that are prone to malware and phishing attacks. These sites have potentially harmful or malicious content, such as scams and viruses. It is difficult for many users to scam and identify phishing attempts. A content filtering measure can help to block out familiar phishing attempts. When combined with the proper training, it can reduce the chances of falling prey to such attacks.Unfortunately, blocking sites alone does not guarantee protection against more advanced phishing attacks.
• Protection against botnets which are now new threats, particularly to IoT devices, are becoming increasingly popular. They are dangerous, and blocking those Botnet servers, will block communication with them and protect the device. 
• Advertisement blocking is a type of content filtering. Advertisements may disguise themselves to collect information from users or have malicious applications hidden inside them. Even if ads are not malicious, they can damage the performance of a system and reduce the efficiency of the user.
• Attackers use the Typo correction used to correct a wrong typing - something like gogle.com to Google.com 
• It is essential to protect this as malicious attackers purchase “typo” domains and then install malicious programs or collect data from them. A "typo" domain will look ike a regular domain in every respect, but it will collect the user's data once it is entered.

DNS improves speed which in turn increases efficiency and productivity. Usually, secure DNS servers provide a faster lookup than DNS servers provided by an ISP. Secure DNS servers also increase reliability. DNS resolution is used several times throughout connecting to the Internet.  

• An incremental improvement can ensure substantially more significant levels of performance.

How can users start using DNS Level protection?

There are free DNS and paid DNS protection services, and one can use either of them depending on the requirement. One can look up “free DNS level protection” to find services and comparisons with other services. One may also prefer considering paid DNS service. Paid accounts offer advanced control such as direct control over allowing listing and blocklisting. A paid DNS server is faster and more reliable than a free one, but free ones are also useful.

Once the right quality of DNS secured service is found, administrators can implement it as an employee work device and ensure that work devices are connected through a secure portal. Employees may want to use personal devices for office work, so they must use a secured DNS server. The DNS server will protect both their desktop devices and their smartphones.DNS servers provide an additional layer of security and content filtering between the Internet and the users.

There are two fundamental protocols on the Internet. One is the BGP -a map, and the other is the DNS or the address book. Administrators, users, or anyone who controls them controls the Internet. The recent disappearance of Facebook is an example.

Anything on the Internet starts with DNS, and one will wonder as to control the users. It could be the ISP as the user is their customer, but most likely, it is the third non-contracted patty like 9.9.9.9 or 1.1.1.1.

Privacy

One may wonder how private and secure are they and whether cloud solutions are the only option. The cloud DNS may not sell the user data, but they know everything about them. That is why it is free.

Security

No one can guarantee absolute security, and no test can be devised to demonstrate security. It is clear that if one breaks into something, one knows it is insecure. But users have options in their hands with a powerful protective and detective tool to protect their business or home.