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Cisco To Acquire OpenDNS
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?
You're assuming that what you think are the root DNS servers are actually the root DNS servers, and that they're not being spoofed by the CIA, NSA, or whoever in the first place. You're also assuming that your ISP would allow you to do such a thing, and not brand you as someone up to no good, and cut you off.
I never trusted OpenDNS much in the first place, certainly no more at best than I would any ISP's DNS servers.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Malware domain filtering as well, don't forget that.
The best defense against virus and malware is blocking them before your computer can even connect to download.
Or be a better netizen by running your own and forwarding to your ISP's.
The whole reason OpenDNS even exists is because ISP's proved they cannot be trusted to run an honest DNS. And let's not pretend that DNSSEC is universally deployed.
Most people here can setup up a 99 cent VPS with an openvpn endpoint running a recursive resolver, limited to the openvpn net. That fits in the smallest slice of RAM available in 2015 and will work fine.
Most other people cannot, though. Google's DNS is honest, if you don't care about tracking - but most people care more about free stuff than privacy.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Google, of course. Any DNS sizable enough to trust is likely to be a tool of the state, but at least Google is competent.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
What's the value you get out of DNSCrypt to OpenDNS? Instead of your ISP seeing your DNS traffic and requests, OpenDNS (and now Cisco) gets to see your DNS traffic and requests.
Am I missing something?
please elaborate on the tracking. where did you get that from? that's an honest question; i use google's servers as last resort backup dns.
So any DNS you use could do this.
So isn't it logical to use one that is being run by a massive competent company that is already making huge profits and has the whole world watching them vs some small org that is just trying to make ends meet that no one is paying attention to.
Frankly if I was the CIA I would be intercepting traffic to the small oddball servers more than Google.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
L3 has introduced random delays in their resolvers for anyone off-network so if you want decent performance you'll use just about anything but those. Google had some performance issues when they first introduced their anycast clusters but today they're as fast as anything I've tried.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Who here trust Cisco?
Your bank.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
Frankly, at this point, if the CIA cannot access and intercept data from Google they are utterly incompetent in doing their job. For the cost of (at most) giving an employee a suitcase full of money, you get an incredible bonanza of data. Which secret service wouldn't do it?
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
A former colleague of mine left to a startup which some years later was absorbed by Google. The work she does at Google involves access to multiple Google databases (to detect fraudulent access patterns), which is apparently unusual. I asked her about the DNS database; she said that is the one database to which she (and most other projects at Google) doesn't have access. I took from this that Google does track DNS access.
L3 has introduced random delays in their resolvers for anyone off-network
source on this?