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How Protective DNS Works

What Is EnforceDNS?

EnforceDNS is a cloud-native Protective DNS (PDNS) solution that stops threats before they reach your users or systems—by blocking malicious activity at the DNS layer, where nearly all internet communications begin.

What makes EnforceDNS different is its foundation: it’s built on the same infrastructure intelligence that powers HYAS Insight, giving it deep visibility into attacker behavior and adversary infrastructure. This allows EnforceDNS to block connections to malicious domains BEFORE they’re weaponized or appear on traditional threat feeds.

By intercepting and analyzing outbound DNS queries in real time, EnforceDNS delivers proactive defense against a wide range of threats, including:

  • Phishing and spear phishing

  • Malware and botnets

  • Ransomware and command-and-control (C2) communications

  • Data exfiltration

  • Malicious redirects and scam domains

These threats all depend on DNS communication to succeed—whether it’s to “call home,” receive instructions, or exfiltrate data. EnforceDNS stops them at the earliest possible point—before the connection is made—regardless of whether the device is in the office, remote, or part of an OT environment.

How Does EnforceDNS Work?

While most PDNS solutions rely on static, often outdated blocklists and allowlists, EnforceDNS uses real-time infrastructure intelligence to detect and block threats others miss.

At the heart of EnforceDNS is the Decision Engine, which analyzes every DNS query against HYAS’s data lake of adversary infrastructure, behavioral patterns, and global DNS activity. Each domain is evaluated and assigned a weighted risk score, determining whether it should be allowed, blocked, or logged for review.

Here’s what sets EnforceDNS apart:

  • Proactive threat detection based on attacker infrastructure—not just known bad domains

  • Industry-leading efficacy, as proven in third-party testing by AV-TEST

  • Custom policy control to block by category, domain, or user-defined rules

  • Flexible enforcement, from silent drops to user-facing block pages

  • Full visibility, with searchable logs and integrations into SIEM and SOAR tools

Because it operates at the DNS layer, EnforceDNS is lightweight, scalable, and deployable across IT, remote, and OT environments—without requiring endpoint agents or deep packet inspection.

Why Use EnforceDNS?

  • Proactively blocks threats like phishing, malware, ransomware, and data exfiltration

  • Leverages attacker infrastructure intelligence to detect emerging threats before they're known

  • Delivers high-fidelity protection with fewer false positives

  • Protects all environments—on-prem, remote, and OT

  • Easy to deploy and manage, with flexible policy controls and robust visibility


Click here to watch a short video on EnforceDNS

Choosing the Right Deployment Option(s) ➡️