Comodo acquired DNS.com, a managed domain name system services provider to build up its secure DNS offering, the Comodo Authoritative DNS Service.
Internet security firm
Comodo has added domain-name systems to its slate of managed services with the
acquisition of DNS.com.
With the acquisition, Comodo
launched Comodo Authoritative DNS Service, a Domain Name System hosting service
for enterprise customers, the company said Feb. 10. Discussion around the deal
began earlier in the summer of 2010 and closed in the late summer, Melih
Abdulhayoglu, CEO and chief security architect of Comodo, told eWEEK. Abdulhaloglu
declined to discuss financial terms of the deal.
"We saw that DNS is
insecure, so we are using our expertise to secure it," he said.
Comodo was able to
immediately roll out secured DNS services to all its enterprise customers as
well as to move its own infrastructure to use DNS.com, Abdulhayoglu said. It
makes sense to take advantage of Comodo's extensive network of data centers and
ensure customers get both secure and fast Internet performance, he said.
Comodo knows how security
works and about the various threats to the network, and it
has the technical qualifications to secure networks, he said. DNS services are
a natural progression of Comodo's enterprise security software business, which
includes multi-factor authentication and a PCI/vulnerability scanner. "We
are a security company trying to provide DNS," which makes more sense than a
DNS company trying to provide security, he said.
DNS is the heart of the
Internet's naming infrastructure, as it serves as a virtual phone directory
that matches IP addresses with the corresponding domain name. "The Internet
doesn't run without DNS, yet no one cares about the security of the DNS,"
Abdulhayoglu said.
DNS.com will benefit from
Comodo's global infrastructure, extensive customer base and security expertise,
said Dan Kimball, former CEO of DNS.com.
"Comodo is here to make DNS
better," Kimball said. DNS.com was originally called ComWired.com, a
geodirectional DNS system company. It changed its name when it began offering
managed DNS services and acquired the domain last April.
As the only certificate authority
in the world that has DNS-hosting capabilities, Comodo is in a unique "position
to contribute to new security standards" to create better and more secure DNS
protocols, he said.
Comodo is working with large
organizations to set up new standards to improve DNS security, he said.
Considering attackers don't bother attacking servers anymore because it's so
much easier to go after DNS, providing better
security protocols for DNS was critical, he said. Even though getting those
standards in place would take some time, Comodo's customers would be protected,
he said.
"We are seeing more attacks
against DNS every day. It's a simple fact," Abdulhayoglu said. There has
been an increase in denial-of-service attacks recently, as hacktivisits target
Websites to protest or to punish corporate policies. For example, a loose group
of Internet hackers who call themselves Anonymous has been targeting a number
of government Websites in defense of WikiLeaks and to support Egyptian
protesters.
Enterprises can't really
protect themselves against DDOS attacks on their own, but Comodo's networks are
built with anti-DDOS capabilities to fight and resist massive attacks,
Abdulhayoglu said. "Going down a few hours because the DNS isn't working is no
longer acceptable for enterprises," he said.
DNS.com recently upgraded
its network and added six new nodes for a total of 14 edge locations worldwide,
Comodo said. DNS.com offers packages based on queries per month, which includes
an easy-to-use Web-based control panel, and access to security support.
All employees of DNS.com
joined Comodo and Comodo has committed additional financial resources and new
employees to build out the DNS business unit, Abdulhayoglu said.
A number of networking and
security experts have been worried about the lack of security in DNS over the
years. Internet traffic is being routed
on a system that relies "primarily on trust," and its lack of proper
security standards meant the world was on "borrowed time" before a serious
incident occurred, Craig Labovitz, chief scientist at Arbor Networks, told
eWEEK.
Despite warnings over the
"vulnerability" of DNS and a "long history" of downtime associated
with DNS issues, "organizations are still not taking DNS security
seriously," Cricket Liu, vice-president of architecture at Infoblox told
eWEEK.
Abdulhayoglu says, "It's
time to take DNS seriously."
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