On the other hand, DDI vendors and managed DNS providers offer more specialized DNS security solutions based on threat research, AI-driven behavioral analysis, and their overall DNS expertise.
EMA asked DDI decision-makers which type of vendor they trusted most to secure DNS. Nearly 55% said they trusted their general network security and cybersecurity vendors, while only 33% trusted DNS solution specialists. Our research suggests trust in general security vendors is misplaced. Survey respondents who trusted DNS solution providers were more likely to believe their DNS infrastructure was completely secure, while those who trusted general security providers were less secure. EMA recommends that enterprises go with the DNS experts to secure this infrastructure.
DNS security is a hybrid cloud issue
Many enterprises have siloed approaches to on-premises and cloud infrastructure. The network team builds and manages the on-premises network, including DNS infrastructure. The cloud team owns its own domain and manages its own DNS services. This can create DNS security silos, where policies, defensive measures, and security monitoring are inconsistent.
EMA research found that only 49% of DDI teams have enough influence over how DNS is implemented and managed in the public cloud. Survey respondents who reported having enough influence were more likely to believe their DNS is fully secure. With sufficient influence, DDI teams have more assurance that cloud teams are taking the right steps to secure DNS.
What does good DNS security look like?
EMA found that enterprises with secure DNS infrastructure tended to have:
- Confidence in their DDI data: They were aware of all DDI assets on their networks, including DNS. And they had strong discovery and reporting in place to make sure they could track changes to DNS.
- Their IP address management (IPAM) tools were integrated with more DNS infrastructure. This integration allows them to manage and track changes to DNS centrally in the IPAM tool, reducing opportunities for bad changes to open security vulnerabilities.
- DDI operations were highly automated, which drives efficiency but also reduces errors.
- DDI technology was integrated with network security controls, security monitoring tools, and identity and access management systems. This ensures the DDI stack and DNS infrastructure is plugged into the overall security ecosystem.
Finally, most enterprises reported that they were using specialized DNS security solutions such as DNS firewalls or DDoS protection to defend their networks. Most companies were also encrypting DNS traffic to prevent malicious actors from snooping and extracting intelligence from DNS queries.
