To use OpenDNS, the user must adjust their DNS settings under the network connections tab in the control panel to point to the company’s servers. Using the service does not require additional software or hardware. Websites load faster because of the way OpenDNS caches IP addresses.
Phishing emails are stopped by OpenDNS, if it’s a legitimately recognized threat. Surfers who click on the link in phishing scams will be blocked from visiting the website that aims to con surfers into giving up personal information. “Spammers, phishers, botmasters and other Internet bad guys use DNS as a vector for running their attacks and schemes to send spam, spread malware and operate phishing sites,” OpenDNS CEO David Ulevitch wrote on his blog. “We wrote code to filter out the Bad Guys and began collaborating with other DNS providers to share information on bad users and bad domains so that these bad actors would be unable to jump from service to service. “The problem was that the bad guys just moved onto easier targets — other DNS services that didn’t care as much as I did and didn’t collaborate with the major DNS players. The abuse continued to be levied on the Internet and I was unable to stop it. By cleaning up my neighborhood all I had done was drive the abuse into another one. So I created OpenDNS to deal with this and many other limitations of the existing DNS.”
Ulevitch said OpenDNS acts as an Internet crossing guard by blocking fraud attempts, and allowing for a faster, more user friendly surfing environment.
“The problems we are trying to solve, such as phishing and malware, these are social DNS problems, not technical,” Ulevitch told Wired News. “Recursive DNS servers are the root of the problem. None of these attacks work without DNS. We set out to create a DNS server and DNS service that provides intelligence and transparency into the way recursive DNS service works.”
According to the company’s business model, it makes money when a user types in a nonexistent url, which then directs them to a search page with paid ads.
OpenDNS beta testers have asked the company to redirect obvious typos away from typo-squatters who rely on surfers’ errant keystrokes that redirects them to another website. According to Wired News Ulevitch seems to agree, and is looking for ways implement this feature.
