Company:SafeDNS

SafeDNS

Type	Private
Industry	Web Content Filtering, Cyber Security
Founded	2010 (2010)
Headquarters	Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Number of employees	11-50

SafeDNS is a cybersecurity company that specializes in providing cloud-based web filtering solutions and AI-powered technology. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, US.

Origins and Initial Growth (2010-2020)

The company was founded in 2010 and has since become one of the prominent players in the industry. During its initial years, SafeDNS focused on developing its technology and establishing itself as a reliable provider of internet security solutions. The company invested in research and development; thus, in 2015, AI and machine learning were incorporated into SafeDNS content filtering solutions. By implementing continuous machine learning, SafeDNS is able to verify and categorize domains. To ensure stable and high-quality filtering, the company employs several approaches and utilizes its own and third-party databases. In case SafeDNS encounters a domain for the first time, it will redirect a user to a block page and the domain itself will be "quarantined" until it is assigned a category through scanning and a series of additional checks. This type of technology leads to 98% precision in detecting and preventing threats. On the SafeDNS website, there is an option to verify any link before clicking on it.

In 2015 SafeDNS was tested and certified as an approved Parental control product by AV-Comparatives for the first time. Since then, the company has confirmed its status every year.

In 2019, a new, highly user-friendly SafeDNS dashboard was launched. Its intuitive interface enables effortless online security management.

Since 2020

SafeDNS continues to grow and develop new features and tools. In 2022 new features such as Cyber Security categories and AppBlocker were introduced.

SafeDNS’ long-term vision is to create a unified cybersecurity platform at the DNS level, through which organizations will be able to protect their network from existing and zero-day cyber threats and fully control the security of their network according to the company’s 3R - Reveal, React, Resist concept with minimal delay and the most innovative and practical features.

The company sees its product as a tool capable of adapting to constantly changing threats and providing comprehensive solutions for the security of company networks and several kinds of organizations. SafeDNS strives to create a world where digital security is not only practical, but accessible to everyone.

Product and Key Features

SafeDNS offers a cloud-based web filtering solution with a comprehensive database of existing domains that is updated on a daily basis. It filters the internet at the DNS layer with AI-powered technology, such as domain categorization and malicious resource detection. SafeDNS helps to provide access only to relevant internet resources, protect the network from malicious and harmful content, and be compliant with every applicable law and regulation.

AppBlocker

The AppBlocker feature allows users to restrict access to all the domains associated with a specific service.

AI-powered categorization

Another key feature is AI-powered categorization, which allows a user to block access to a whole category of websites based on their content and purpose. The web categorization system processes over 1 billion DNS requests each day, categorizes 400K per day, and updates the database daily. There are Allow- and Denylists of websites that are either explicitly allowed or blocked, regardless of their category. SafeDNS Categories and the Allow/Denylist work together; Categories do not override the Allow/Denylist.

SafeDNS prevents any bypass for both the cloud-based system, and the software agent by blocking proxies and anonymizers.

SafeDNS Agents

SafeDNS provides the Agent software that is designed to automatically launch and manage the SafeDNS web filtering service on Windows, MacOS, Linux, or Android-based devices. The Agent should be installed on the PC when a user has a private (local) or dynamic public address or wants to have a separate web filtering policy for each device within the network. The Agent works on any network, even behind the NAT (Network Address Translation), and filtering settings take priority over the router-level filter settings.

Internet Schedule

The Internet Schedule feature enables users to set time restrictions for internet access.

Internet Usage Statistics

Also, SafeDNS users receive visual comprehensive reports about the domain names of resources visited by their staff, students, clients or family.

Compliance

SafeDNS meets modern internet usage policy standards, its web filtering is compliant with all CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) rules and regulations in education from the IWF (Internet Watch Foundation), BpjM, and HIPAA. With SafeDNS, educators not only in the US but also in Canada, Germany, the UK, and many other countries can comply with local regulations.

Courses

Safe DNS offers two free online courses: Cybersecurity Awareness Training, which helps users be aware of the risks connected with BYOD, email communications, and Wi-Fi connections and informs them on malware types and ways of protecting passwords; and Basics of Web Filtering, which gives insight into how web filtering works and instructs on the use of the SafeDNS dashboard.

Industries

SafeDNS provides web security solutions to a wide range of industries, including enterprises, SMBs, MSPs, OEMs, education, non-profit organizations, MSPs, ISPs, WiFi and telecom providers, and individual households. The company's scalable and customizable solutions make it suitable for businesses of all sizes.

Awards

SafeDNS has won a number of awards. In 2021, its solution was included in the Capterra 2021 shortlist of the best cybersecurity software. The SafeDNS product was ranked among the top 10 out of 515 evaluated by users and analyzed by Capterra.

In 2021, SafeDNS stood out from its competitors and gained an overall score of 4.7 (out of 5) across all three Gartner Digital Markets sites: Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp.

In 2022, the web-filtering service won the Best Value Software award at the SoftwareSuggest Winter Recognition Awards.

Also, SafeDNS has been many times recognized as Top Performer in the Cloud Cybersecurity Software category by SourceForge.

In 2023 it was recognized as an Emerging Favorite by Capterra in two categories: Endpoint Protection and Cloud Security.

Geography

SafeDNS operates internationally and has established a global presence. Its products and services are available in 69 countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States. SafeDNS continues to expand its reach and collaborate with partners globally to provide effective cybersecurity solutions.

See also

• Google Public DNS
• Norton ConnectSafe
• OpenDNS
• Zscaler