The Economic Value of DNS Security, a study by the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA), confirmed the economic value of DNS security in a world where “wide-scale cyber hacks, crimes, and vulnerabilities seem to pop up on a daily basis.”

More than 33% of cybersecurity data breaches, the report found, can be prevented with the installation of a service such as Quad9 – a firewall that blocks malware, phishing, spyware, and botnets while improving performance, guaranteeing privacy, and reinforcing the security and integrity of all transactions. Operated by the Swiss-based Quad9 Foundation, the service is free and available to provide a safer, more private, and more robust Internet for everyone.

A NETWORK FIREWALL – THE ESSENTIAL BARRIER

Network firewalls prevent intruders from accessing resources inside the enterprise, as well as monitoring and preventing unauthorized connections from originating from internal systems to dangerous destinations.

A DNS firewall has a more fundamental benefit: it prevents connections even from being attempted, by blocking the victim’s system from knowing where to send connection requests.

The value of a DNS firewall like Quad9 is literal and great – “A conservative estimate values the impact of DNS firewalls at preventing $10 billion in data-breach losses over the past five years,” the GCA report concludes.

The risks to data and resources by customers are outside normal methods of protection against fraud. Because network firewalls, anti-malware software, and other preventative measures are costly and complex for home users, they are not universally applied. Customers can be exposed and vulnerable to emerging risks that may not even fit the traditional protection models that “anti-virus” services provide - phishing is not malware, for example..

QUAD9: THE BEST SOLUTION – AND THE SIMPLEST

Quad9 can be implemented easily to extend and complement these types of end-user-deployed anti-virus protective services to give significant additional protection. Quad9 does not compete with most existing security tools – its services form an additional layer that can be added without removing other customer-installed systems. The DNS firewall services provided by Quad9 access threat intelligence from cybersecurity companies and public sources to keep users from visiting or being led to malicious sites.

Another option that Quad9 can provide is the symbiotic functionality for FinServ organizations to submit lists of domains that are known to house or participate in phishing, ransomware, spyware, or other campaigns that directly target customers. Quad9 can in turn include those domains in its blocking set, which then can actively be blocked for those customers, preventing the threat. This creates a direct and highly effective method for FinServ companies to address specific risks they know about which are aimed at their customer base.

Quad9 can return volumetric information about security breach indicators, helping FinServ companies validate their research and focus their security attention to reduce fraud, decrease costs of security false alarms, as well as providing their customers with a specific security benefit that is tangible and is a market differentiator.

The value of Quad9 grows in a virtuous cycle as more organizations provide data and as users employ it. FinServ companies protect their own business, but Quad9 adds – at no cost – another security layer that is updated in near-real-time. And by encouraging their end users also to incorporate Quad9, they can achieve a global dimension in comprehensive security. Transactions and critical data are more secure with Quad9.

When all the participants share this level of security, the rising tide lifts all boats, and the ROI on this deployment is effectively perfect: Quad9’s non-profit mission means that this additional security can be delivered at no cost, with no sacrifice of the user or organizational privacy.

CONFIRMING THE VALUE OF QUAD9

In May of this year, one of Quad9’s sponsors, SolveIQ, reported that one-third of its client base – representing as many as 170,000 home-based end-users – reported at least one cybersecurity breach that was blocked by Quad9. Factor in the underreporting of multiple events, and the number becomes even larger.

“Quad9, by a long shot, is really ahead of the pack … I was really impressed,” says Tom Lawrence, a technology consultant, and CEO of Lawrence Systems, who conducted a comparative study of the efficacy of leading DNS security filters.

In Lawrence’s results, Quad9 blocked some 97% of suspicious sites – almost 40% ahead of the success rate of the nearest competitor. As for ease of use – and emphasizing the specific blocking of malware – Lawrence concluded, “Quad9, from a business or a home-user standpoint, worked well.”

Other studies echo Lawrence’s results – one, even concluding that Quad9’s success rate in blocking phishing was even more effective than the malware tests.

That level of efficacy only adds to the security of transactions and exchange of information in the FinServ space – and it’s free. Quad9 operates outside the for-profit business model, serving only the needs of its users. The system is designed, managed, and shared for the sole purpose of ensuring global internet integrity, with the highest degree of accuracy.

SECURING THE FUTURE, AS PARTNERS

Help Quad9 help you.

Quad9 is free to anyone who wants to use it, and with freedom comes responsibility. Administered by a non-profit foundation, Quad9 is not monetized or marketed for a profit. It exists to make the internet a more secure and more reliable place for people to work, learn and connect to online services. Tens of millions of users already are on the platform, and new users continue to be added at an increasing pace.

Quad9 relies on the support of companies like yours, which benefit from Quad9 on every level. Monetary contributions to underwrite our operations – especially from the sectors that benefit most from Quad9 – are critical in evolving the service to anticipate the needs of its worldwide users. Encouraging your customers and stakeholders to use Quad9 also delivers exponential growth, and the sharing of information and data gives us more ability to target and prevent specific risks against your user community.

Supporting Quad9 is seeding the future. We are here for you now, with a network deployed across more than 90 countries and in almost two hundred locations. And we will always be there for you in a rapidly changing business environment, with your generous support.

The bottom line with Quad9 is that it enhances and supports fraud prevention – a constant, critical area concern in the FinServ world.