Past, Present(s), and Future: DNSFilter's 2024 Recap + 2025 Roadmap

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AppAware
Application Blocking

With DNSFilter's AppAware feature, you can easily block over 80 risky applications from being used on your network.

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Increase Your Organizational Security

Increase your organizational security

A single website or application isn’t just one website—it’s a system of upwards of hundreds or thousands of domains that work together to send information back to its servers. Using intelligent app discovery, AppAware allows you to block all of the domains associated with a single app.

Block intruders coming from remote desktop access

According to CrowdStrike’s 2021 Global Threat Hunting Report, more cyberattacks are relying on remote desktop apps for the entry point of their attacks. It’s one of the top ways hackers associated with the MITRE ATT gained initial access to systems in 2021, and they continue to use these applications for further discovery and movement through victims’ systems.

Blocking remote desktop applications on your company network is a vital step in cementing your zero trust policy. Even if these DNS requests are occurring on your network from a trusted device, you should never automatically trust these requests.

At DNSFilter, we see daily traffic to remote desktop applications averaging over 4 million DNS queries every day. Our users are already blocking 25% of these queries, likely because they recognize the threat they pose. AppAware allows you to easily filter out these applications with the click of a button instead of managing cumbersome block lists, so these apps are rendered useless on your network, stopping would-be hackers.

Block risky gaming and social media platforms

Gaming platforms like Roblox and social media applications aren't just sources of entertainment—they can also pose significant security risks. From social media to gaming platforms like Roblox, AppAware makes it simple to block risky applications across your network. By preventing access to these platforms, you reduce exposure to potential threats like online predators, scams, and inappropriate content.

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Reporting on applications, not domains

With our AppAware feature, you’ll now have insight into the specific applications your users are accessing. While you’ll still have visibility into the full query data, AppAware’s reporting allows you to easily roll up individual domains into an “application” view for a more streamlined view of your DNS data.

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Frequently Asked Questions

WHY IS FILE SHARING SO DANGEROUS?

Peer-to-peer filesharing sites like the Pirate Bay, BitTorrent, and uTorrent are notorious for infecting computers with malware. Because the user on the other end providing you with content is external to your network, they should not be inherently trusted. This goes for professional applications such as Dropbox as well. What is hosted on these sites and shared isn’t always inspected and deemed secure—leaving your network open to compromise.

WHAT IS APPAWARE?

Appaware is a next-generation application-blocking tool that enables organizations to seamlessly block common security threats. AppAware allows users to have real-time visibility of application activity on their network, as well as taking immediate and proactive actions to block apps which do not align with their internal policies. AppAware is available to all Enterprise, Pro+, and MSP customers.

HOW MANY APPLICATIONS CAN I BLOCK WITH APPAWARE?

With AppAware, organizations can block over 100 high-risk applications—including filesharing, remote desktop and high-risk messaging apps—with a single click and instantly gain insights into the usage of every application across the network.

REMOVE MANUAL WORK FROM BLOCK LIST MAINTENANCE?

If you want to truly block Discord to increase end user productivity (and not to mention increase security by blocking a site that is known for being a magnet for phishing attacks), this means you need to stay on top of any new domains that Discord starts using. The number might start small, only six, but as these companies grow they continue to add more domains. We’ve seen applications with thousands associated domains. If you wanted to block Microsoft domains, Bing alone has over 50,000 associated domains—and that’s not even taking into account all of Microsoft’s other applications you might want to manage and block. AppAware gives you the power to block what you need to without adding to your workload.

BLOCK VPNs TO AVOID FILTER BYPASS

Some might view VPNs as harmless tools used for remote office file access, but they’re also heavily used to bypass content filtering. Over half a million queries to VPN-related domains occur on our network daily, with only 10% of these attempts blocked. However, of the blocked access attempts, 85%are because a security filter was enabled. When your users bypass the DNS security you have in place, you increase the likelihood that a threat will take hold of that device and possibly extend to the rest of your organization. Now you can choose from seven VPN and proxy applications to block once and for all.

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