About the project

 

 

 

DNS4EU is an initiative by the European Commission that aims to offer an alternative to the public DNS resolvers currently dominating the market.

Supported by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the European Union's DNS4EU secure-infrastructure project provides a protective, privacy-compliant, and resilient DNS service to strengthen the EU’s digital sovereignty and enhance digital security for European Union citizens, governments, and institutions.

The program provides robust DNS security for public institutions and their employees, ministries, local governments or municipalities, healthcare, education, and other critical services such as telecommunications providers. By working with the latter, for example, it ensures DNS resolution service for all of a telco’s customers, with minimum manual overhead for their teams. 

Additionally, the DNS4EU solutions aid organizations in complying with regulatory requirements (such as GDPR) to keep data within European borders.

As these organizations often face challenges to independently developing and maintaining high-level cybersecurity measures (such as election cycles or funding), the DNS4EU project solves these challenges by providing a Europe-based, centralized, scalable solution to ensure the highest standards of security and privacy, compliant with EU regulations.

The goal of DNS4EU is to ensure the digital sovereignty of the EU by providing a private, safe, and independent European DNS resolver.

The DNS4EU initiative aligns with the EU's strategic goal of enhancing its digital autonomy by providing an alternative to the existing public DNS services provided by non-european entities.

DNS4EU aims to enhance the European Union's control over its digital infrastructure and data, reducing European reliance on foreign DNS providers and thereby supporting the digital sovereignty​​ of European organizations and citizens.

The entire project is managed by an international consortium, comprising private cybersecurity companies, CERTs, and academic institutions from 10 European Union countries

Leader of the consortium is  Whalebone.

• Whalebone - a cybersecurity company developing user-centric products for Telcos, ISPs, and enterprises. It provides millions of internet users as above seamless DNS security, protecting them from malware, phishing schemes, ransomware, and other malicious digital attacks without the need to download anything. 

• Other members of the consortium are CZ.NIC (CZ), CVUT (CZ), Time.lex (BE), deSEC (DE), HUN-REN (HU), ABILAB (IT), NASK (PL), DNSC (RO). Inseparable role plays associated partners that provide the consortium with consultation and sharing know-how.

Associated partners are F-SECURE (FI), CESNET (CZ), Ministry of Electronic Governance (BG).

More about the consortium here. 

DNS4EU includes options for different audience segments.

• A public and free DNS resolver will be available for end users and those subjects that wish to join this free service with basic DNS security protection.
• DNS4EU for Governments  – Protection for thousands of organisations  on the DNS level. This is a completely different use case from just a public resolver.
• DNS4EU for Telcos  – In order to make sure that the DNS4EU resolution is actually enjoyed by many users throughout the EU, we believe that telcos and ISPs are crucial partners.  We offer DNS4EU resolvers via telco networks and process the complete DNS traffic on those resolvers. 
• The last pillar is dedicated to Threat Intelligence (CERTs, CSIRTs and academic subjects). A significant feature of DNS4EU is its capability to provide regional threat intelligence. A malicious threat discovered in one country can be simultaneously blocked across multiple countries or regions, preventing its spread. DNS4EU threat intelligence is enhanced by CERTs and other institutions all around the EU, providing information on EU-specific threats, as well as by the data about cyberattacks gathered through the telco partners. CERTs are valuable partners for effective collaboration in local threat intelligence exchange. 

The DNS resolver basically translates the domain names people use to machine-readable IP addresses and back.

• Mostly, people and institutions use the DNS resolver set by their connection provider.
  DNS4EU, a European initiative, presents multiple avenues for establishing a secure and compliant DNS resolver.
• This DNS resolver, which not only fulfills this basic function, but is able to filter out malicious traffic as well, thus effectively protects any device using the resolver with no need for installation or maintenance of any software. Basically, if any device connected to the DNS4EU Resolver tries to access a malicious domain (for example to activate a malware or to access a scam website), it is stopped immediately, preventing any damage the threat may have caused. 
• Moreover, the resolver and all of the processes necessary for its development and operation are hosted 100% in the EU, thus making sure that it abides GDPR and all highest privacy norms set by the EU.
• Basically, if any device connected to the DNS4EU Resolver tries to access a malicious domain (for example to activate a malware or to access a scam website), it is stopped immediately, preventing any damage the threat may have caused.

The DNS4EU project started officially in January 2023, and is co-funded by the EU from 2023 to 2025. The EU will partially contribute to the development of the infrastructure and it is expected and encouraged by the European Commission that the service is commercialised, since it has to be sustainable without operational costs from the EU after 2025. 

To ensure net neutrality and freedom for internet users, the usage of DNS4EU is voluntary for EU citizens, and they are always free to choose a different DNS provider.

This project provides the European Commission with no means of censorship. Furthermore, this would be against the goals of the project, which aims to strengthen digital sovereignty.  The EU will not have access to configuration, data, etc. On top of that, DNS4EU will not be forced on anyone. It will merely abide to local regulations required of internet service provider.  In other words, DNS4EU is not a way toward censorship, but actually toward data protection and better internet security and sovereignty for Europeans.

“Member states should encourage the development and use of public and secure European DNS resolver service.” NIS2 directive, 2023

 DNS4EU, a European initiative, presents multiple avenues for establishing a secure and compliant DNS resolver, aligning seamlessly with EU regulations. Its base lies in the cornerstone EU documents such as the Cybersecurity Strategy of the EU. Finally, it was recommended in the European Parliament and Council’s directive NIS2.

DNS4EU solutions are already available and the DNS4EU program already protects millions of people in Europe by securing critical-services infrastructure

• Join as a Stakeholder: Sign up to access exclusive DNS4EU newsletter updates, webinars, conferences, etc.
• For CERTs and CSIRTs: Join the Threat Intelligence Exchange to combat cyber threats in Europe.
• For Telcos/ISPs: Contact us about becoming a commercial partner to enhance your security services.
• For Government, Public Sector, and Enterprises: Contact George Buhai, Government Liaison, to initiate discussions or a Proof of Concept (PoC) for critical IT infrastructure.
• For EU Citizens: Express your interest in DNS4EU by contacting local municipal government representatives and critical service providers.

Being a DNS4EU Stakeholder means being actively involved in shaping and guiding the development of the European Union's secure and sovereign DNS infrastructure.

Stakeholders include technical experts, industry leaders, government officials, and representatives from various sectors, all working together to influence the direction of DNS4EU. The role allows participants to engage with European authorities and other stakeholders to ensure that the system meets technical, legal, and regulatory requirements while maintaining data privacy and security standards.