OpenDNS, NortonDNS and ClearCloud Filter Malicious Domains

DNS-based security services like OpenDNS, NortonDNS, and ClearCloud filter malicious domains—easy to set up (no client software needed), easy to use (users do nothing), affordable (free), and efficient (protection in the cloud). They reach people and companies that wouldn't have any protection otherwise.

David Glosser’s posting on the Malware Domain Blocklist blog reminded me that Sunbelt Software launched the ClearCloud

DNS service that filters malicious domains. As David noted, ClearCloud is similar in its capabilities to Symantec’s NortonDNS service. The service that actually defined this space is OpenDNS, which by now is a very mature offering. There is also Google Public DNS, which, unlike the other 3, does not seem to filter known malicious domains, though it provides some other security benefits.

I’m glad to see the increasing availability of security solutions that are:

• Easy to set up: while client software may be available, it’s not even necessary
• Easy to use: the user does not need to do anything to maintain the service’s effectiveness
• Affordable: the services are available for free
• Efficient: the protection occurs in the provider’s cloud

We need more security tools that are easy to set up and use, that are cheap, and that don’t slow down our systems.

Of course, these DNS-based security services aren’t going to solve all our IT security woes. But they reach into the areas that are often left without protection at all: people and companies that don’t care or don’t have the ability to protect systems with more sophisticated, multi-layered defenses.