DNS

A new, free tool from OpenDNS promises to make domain name system (DNS) lookups--the conversion of a plain-English domain name into a numeric Internet address--more secure. DNSCrypt prevents third parties from intercepting your DNS requests and rewriting them to point your browser, email client, or other software to malicious or fake sites. That may sound like a tedious bit of Internet plumbing, but it profoundly improves your security.

A new vendor-sponsored study of the 1,000 biggest websites quantifies how much better third-party managed service providers are doing at operating DNS services across the Internet cloud than enterprises that run this critical network service themselves.

Half of U.S. government Web sites are vulnerable to commonplace DNS attacks because they haven't deployed a new authentication mechanism that was mandated in 2008, a new study shows.

It's been almost a year since Google announced its free DNS service known as Google Public DNS, promising a speedier, safer way to surf the Web and sparking concern that Google would become the dominant DNS provider for ISPs and other large network operators.

In another sign that DNS operations are migrating into the cloud, industry leader Neustar will announce on Tuesday a new managed service that allows companies to outsource all of their internal DNS and related network address management functions that run on Infoblox appliances.

Nominum is hoping that the second time is the charm in the outsourced DNS market, as the maker of high-end DNS software announces a hosted service.

Domain name registries are scrambling to patch a newly discovered bug in popular open source DNS software that could be exploited for denial-of-service attacks.

Dan Kaminsky, who for years was ambivalent about securing DNS, has become an ardent supporter of DNS Security Extensions.