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Cisco To Acquire OpenDNS

Posted by timothy on from the but-I-thought-open-dns-was-the-alternative dept.

New submitter Tokolosh writes: Both Cisco and OpenDNS announced today that the former is to acquire the latter. From the Cisco announcement: "To build on Cisco's advanced threat protection capabilities, we plan to continue to innovate a cloud delivered Security platform integrating OpenDNS' key capabilities to accelerate that work. Over time, we will look to unite our cloud-delivered solutions, enhancing Cisco's advanced threat protection capabilities across the full attack continuum—before, during and after an attack." With Cisco well-embedded with the US security apparatus (NSA, CIA, FBI, etc.) is it time to seek out alternatives to OpenDNS?

5 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Re:is anyone using it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    outside of a very sophmoric attempt at content filtering, im not sure this service did much? (aside from molest dyndns' API for a user fee.) They basically poison NXDOMAIN for profit...under the auspices of attack prevention and puritanical righteousness.

    The primary reason I use OpenDNS is for DnsCrypt, not for any filtering they provided.

  2. Bye-bye, Open DNS / Hello, Hackers! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The same Cisco that has default SSH keys on their security devices that allow hackers to run wild?

  3. Re:Just run your own by nine-times · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Someone may correct me if there's more to it, but I think it's just that some people are uncomfortable with Google having so much access to information about us. Any DNS server you access will have the potential to keep records of which IP addresses made which queries, which potentially gives Google even more tracking data. As far as I know, there's no real sign that they're using that data, but to some extent, they're a company that makes money from collecting data about their users, so...

  4. Re:Good. by rubycodez · · Score: 1, Insightful

    what google does for money: tracking for marketing and any government entity that either asks for it or takes it

  5. Re:Just run your own by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think the phrase "tin foil hat" is used far too often, and most commonly by people who know next to nothing about network security. For example, OpenDNS created the DNSCrypt project, which encrypts the DNS lookups. Sounds like diamond-coated tin foil hat stuff, no? Well, incidentally, it also protects from MITM attacks that have been used on DNS lookups, which have nothing to do with nation-state protection and everything to do with protection from criminals.

    Please stop using that phrase.