The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has announced a new partnership with cloud connectivity company Cloudflare to deliver the Protective Domain Name System (PDNS) service.
They have agreed on a three-year contract, value unstated, for the firm to implement the service from September of this year in collaboration with services provider Accenture.
NCSC said both companies have been rigorously assessed to ensure they meet the required technical standards.
The PDNS service was launched in 2017 to hamper the use of DNS for malware distribution and operation in UK public services. It has been provided by Nominet, which will continue in the role until September.
NCSC director of national resilience and future technology Jonathon Ellison said: “As a core capability in the ACD toolkit, our PDNS service does vital work to make the UK public sector measurably safer from cyber attacks and help raise the cyber resilience bar across the nation.
“We’re excited about the next phase in delivering this essential service as we build on its significant successes and continue to protect the services that people depend on.”
Preventing access
The PDNS service is one of the NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence Capabilities and prevents access to domains known to be malicious by not resolving them. It also provides organisations with metrics on the health of their networks and access to support from NCSC to resolve any issues.
It has been mandated by the Cabinet Office for use by central government, while being available for other public sector organisations.
NCSC said that since the launch the service has resolved over 2.5 trillion DNS queries and prevented access to 1.5 million malicious domains.
It is now providing protection for more than 1,400 organisations in UK public services.
