Tech Tip – As you know if you follow my posts, I listen to a lot of podcasts. While nearly it is nearly 10 months old (I have quite a podcast episode backlog), I listened to episode #638 of the Security Now podcast as I went on a walk earlier today. The primary subject of this podcast was Quad9.
So what is Quad9? From their web page:
Quad9 is a free, recursive, anycast DNS platform that provides end users robust security protections, high-performance, and privacy.
Why would you want to switch to Quad9? The video above gives a short (2:29) overview of how DNS works to resolve Domain Names into IP addresses, and how Quad9 can provide you with more protection. The Quad9 claims:
- Quad9 blocks against known malicious domains, preventing your computers and IoT devices from connecting to malware or phishing sites (Quad9 pulls in security intelligence from 19 partners including: IBM’s X-Force, Abuse.ch, the Anti-Phishing Working Group, Bambenek Consulting, F-Secure, Netlab, and Proofpoint)
- Quad9 systems are distributed worldwide for quick response with servers in more than 128 locations at present. More than 150 locations in total are scheduled for 2018 (published tests demonstrate Quad9’s response time [1,5,7,8])
- No personally-identifiable information is collected by the system [4]
The founders of Quad9 include IBM, PCH (Packet Clearing House), and the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA). Quad9 works with several partnering groups to make Quad9 a safer, more secure and private way to do DNS lookup. While they have extensive tech in place to block malware domains, Quad9 also has whitelisting in place to prevent known valid domains from being accidentally blocked [1,4].
After listening to Steve Gibson talk about Quad9 on Security Now I decided to switch to Quad9. Shortly after I returned to my apartment I logged on to my MacBook and set up Quad9. If you are not sure how to change your DNS provider on your Mac, the video above shows you how.
You should make the change to Quad9 on your Mac too! You can also set the DNS on your iOS device.
References
- What is Quad9 DNS and is it Better Than OpenDNS
- Quad9 on Wikipedia
- New “Quad9” DNS service blocks malicious domains for everyone
- A Deeper Dive Into Public DNS Resolver Quad9
- DNS Resolvers Performance compared: CloudFlare x Google x Quad9 x OpenDNS
- What is Quad9?
- DNS Performance Comparison: Google, Quad9, OpenDNS, Norton, CleanBrowsing, and Yandex
- Quad9 DNS
- Free Quad9 DNS service aims to make threat intel more accessible
- New Quad9 DNS Service Makes the Internet Safer and More Private
See my other Mac and OS X articles
John's Notes 