It’s estimated that by 2028, the cost of cybercrime in the United States alone will reach $1.82 trillion, up from $452.3 million this year.
This should be a stark reminder to all organizations that developing better cybersecurity protocols in your business is paramount.
A Domain Name System (DNS) filtering service is one of the most effective tools for limiting your exposure to malicious websites and apps. However, many people don’t know what DNS filtering is or how it works.
In this article, we’ll answer those questions for you, explain how DNS filtering can benefit your business, and tell you what to look out for when choosing a service.
What is DNS filtering?
DNS filtering is the process of blocking malicious or unwanted web traffic before it reaches your network or device. At its core, DNS filtering acts as a gatekeeper. It does this by assigning domain names and IP addresses to specific categories, which you can choose to allow, block, or redirect.
Suppose you wanted to block social media use on your network. As expected, these would fall under the Social category. A DNS filtering service allows you to either set a block policy for all social media sites within that category – preventing any of them from loading on your device – or set an individual block rule for specific social media platforms, giving you more control over which DNS queries are resolved.
How does DNS filtering work?
DNS filtering is a technique for blocking access to harmful, inappropriate, or malicious websites and content at the DNS level. But to understand how it works under the hood, you must first grasp how DNS resolution works.
DNS resolution
On a basic level, DNS works like a phonebook. When you want to call someone, you can either enter their phone number or find their name on your contact page. In reality, it’s far easier to remember their name than to memorize their phone number – the internet works in a similar way.
Each domain name has a corresponding IP address that connects you to the webpage. Much like calling someone, it’s easier to remember the domain name – e.g., example.com – than it is to memorize its IP address.
When you enter example.com into your browser, your device initiates a DNS query through a DNS resolver to find its corresponding IP address. Once found, the DNS resolver sends the IP address back to your browser, which it can now use to connect to the webpage and load its content.
This DNS resolver is often provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), over which you have limited to no control. However, you can also have your own DNS resolver to which you can apply filters and restrictions – this is where DNS filtering comes in.
DNS filtering
DNS filtering works by interrupting the DNS process. It intercepts the DNS query and evaluates the request based on your predetermined policies and rulesets. If you have a filter blocking access to the website you’re trying to resolve, the DNS resolver will simply stop the webpage from loading.
With a customizable DNS resolver, you can block entire categories of websites, platforms, and apps or specific web pages at a time. This gives you ultimate control over what content is filtered throughout your network, safeguarding you and your business from malicious or inappropriate websites.
This can be applied to users working remotely or on-site, ensuring everyone in your organization is protected.
How can DNS filtering benefit your business?
DNS filtering can help you block malicious and phishing attacks, thus preventing data theft. It can also stop users from accessing unwanted content, increase employee productivity, and gain oversight over your users’ online activity, all while adhering to industry regulations.
Blocks malicious websites
Malware is an all-encompassing term for any type of malicious software designed to harm, disrupt, or gain unauthorized access to a device, service, or network.
While it can be distributed through email attachments, apps, and text messages, it’s usually distributed through malicious domains. The malware is automatically downloaded onto the device as soon as the website has loaded. It can then steal the user’s data, spy on their activity, or hold their data for ransom.
With a DNS filtering service, these malicious sites or apps are prevented from loading in the first place, meaning you never expose yourself to these kinds of cyber attacks.
Blocks phishing websites
Phishing is a type of cyber attack in which attackers set up a fake website that often looks identical to the real one to steal confidential information.
For instance, suppose you want to access your online bank account. In a phishing scam, a hacker will set up a website that looks identical to your bank’s but is, unbeknownst to you, fake.
As you enter your online banking details to log in, those details will then be sent to the hacker, thus providing them full access to your bank account, which they can use to engage in financial fraud.
A DNS filtering system can identify phishing websites by their domain names or IP addresses and will block access to them. This means that users will be protected from giving out sensitive personal data, even if they are unaware of potentially falling victim to a scam.
Prevents access to unwanted content
You can set DNS filters to block specific types of malicious domains on the internet, whether that’s adult, gambling, or illegal content.
For example, schools may want to prevent kids from accessing adult content on their network. You can set a DNS filter for adult content at the click of a button. All types of adult content will be immediately blocked, safeguarding kids from viewing inappropriate content while browsing the internet.
This is just one example, but this can be applied to any industry or sector. From remote workers connected to their home WiFi to hotels who want to secure their public WiFi, a simple DNS filter can block access to any type of content within seconds.
Improved Internet speed
Blocking ads and trackers will significantly improve your internet browsing experience by reducing the amount of data transferred between your device and a website.
Ads and trackers are typically embedded within web pages from third-party servers, requiring additional HTTP requests to load them. These requests introduce latency and overhead, especially when multiple ads and trackers are present.
By blocking these ads and trackers from resolving, you are reducing the amount of data transfer between your device and the domain, resulting in less bandwidth consumption and faster page load and render times – all of which improve your overall internet speed and user experience.
Increased employee productivity
An often overlooked aspect of a DNS filtering solution is that it can increase employee productivity by blocking access to distractions such as social media, gaming, streaming sites, and more.
Employees are prevented from wasting time on non-work-related activities, ensuring they spend their time on productive tasks during working hours.
Regulatory compliance
For businesses operating in regulated industries such as finance, energy, or government, DNS filtering allows you to comply with your specific regulations and data protection standards.
By blocking access to non-compliant or unauthorized websites, you can mitigate the risk of mishaps such as data breaches and avoid severe penalties.
An example of this is the U.S. healthcare industry, where healthcare providers are subject to HIPAA regulations. DNS filtering can block access to unauthorized cloud storage and file-sharing systems, safeguarding patient data and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Gain oversight over users’ activity
Some DNS filtering services have reporting and analytics features that allow you to evaluate your DNS traffic. This can show you which users have tried to access blocked content and what that content was, allowing you to better understand behavior patterns in your business and how to safeguard them from doing so going forward.
What features should a DNS filtering service have?
Not all DNS filtering services are the same, and it’s important that you find the right one for your use case. Key features should include:
- Real-time malware and phishing protection: At the very least, a DNS filtering service should allow you to block access to known malicious domains, phishing websites, and other online threats in real time.
- Content filtering and category blocking: You should be able to enforce rules and policies based on categories such as adult content, gambling, social media, and streaming media.
- Customizability: You should have the ability to create and manage custom whitelists and blacklists, allowing you to explicitly allow or block access to specific domains or IP addresses. This granular control ensures you can tailor your internet access permissions to your unique needs without sacrificing security.
- Granular reporting and analytics: Detailed reporting and analytics enable you to gain insights into usage patterns, identify security threats, and track compliance with regulations. The DNS filtering service should offer thorough reports, dashboards, and alerts to allow for proactive monitoring and response to incidents.
- Scalability and performance: A DNS filtering service should be easily scalable to accommodate the needs of organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises, without faltering on performance.
- Integration with existing infrastructure: The DNS filtering service should integrate seamlessly with your existing IT infrastructure. This will allow you to leverage DNS filtering as part of a holistic strategy and maximize your protection.
- Quality support and customer service: Finally, the DNS filtering service provider should offer responsive customer support and technical assistance to address any issues or concerns, enabling you to minimize downtime should anything go wrong.
Final thoughts
With ever-growing cyberattacks, adopting strong cybersecurity protocols is a must.
DNS filtering can be a simple tool to limit access to malicious websites and apps, prevent unauthorized access to your network and devices, and increase employee productivity at the same time.
While it’s not a fix-all solution, it is incredibly effective in preventing attacks from happening in the first place and should be used alongside other cybersecurity measures.
