Neustar, a global information services provider delivering real-time identity systems and cloud-based workflow solutions, has acquired Verisign’s recursive Public DNS service. Financial terms of this deal were not disclosed.
Under the terms of the acquisition, the address space for Verisign Public DNS, such as the widely used 64.6.64.6 will be transferred to Neustar and incorporated into its recursive UltraDNS Public service.
Neustar says it will provide Verisign Public DNS users with a continuation of the service they have been accustomed to receiving. Users will be “seamlessly migrated over to the Neustar infrastructure in a process that will be fully transparent to them.”
“A critical component of the overall DNS ecosystem, Recursive DNS is responsible for navigating and connecting outbound business interactions, such as email and service portal APIs, to the open Internet and external customers,” said Brian McCann, President of Security Solutions at Neustar. “The addition of Verisign Public DNS to the Neustar family will utilize our recently upgraded DNS network infrastructure with extra capacity for trillions of queries per day and enhance our visibility into potential threats at the DNS layer, further increasing our ability to deliver world-class cybersecurity services that our customers depend upon.”
DNS, DDoS Mitigation
This latest acquisition builds on the addition by Neustar of Verisign’s DDoS and DNS customers, announced in November 2018. Neustar features one of the industry’s most comprehensive cybersecurity portfolios comprised of DDoS mitigation, web application firewall (WAF), authoritative and recursive DNS, IP and threat intelligence, and website performance management.
“Verisign is committed to focusing on its core mission of providing critical Internet infrastructure,” said Eb Keshavarz, Senior Vice President, Product at Verisign. “This includes Root Zone management, operation of 2 of the 13 global Internet root servers, operation of .gov and .edu, and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net top-level domains, which support the majority of global e-commerce. For this reason, Verisign is transitioning its Public DNS service to Neustar. Neustar has been focused on providing specialized security solutions for many years. Given this experience, we believe Neustar is well-suited to continue to deliver the innovative solutions and world-class performance to which Verisign’s Public DNS users are accustomed.”
Neustar’s DNS solutions include Neustar UltraDNS, an enterprise-grade, cloud-based authoritative DNS service that would securely deliver “fast and accurate” query responses to websites. It also includes Neustar UltraDNS Firewall, a cloud-based cybersecurity solution built on top of Neustar’s recursive DNS service that delivers built-in security and threat protection. Neustar’s unique DNS Shield network secures private domain name system connections between Neustar and its partners. It would help strengthen defenses against attacks by removing traffic entirely from the public Internet. Neustar UltraDDoS Protect provides a cloud-based, always-on approach to “quickly” stop the largest DDoS and highly sophisticated web application threats “without reducing network performance or adding additional levels of complexity to customers’ existing cybersecurity strategies.” These products are part of the broad Neustar security portfolio that leverages the unique OneID system of trusted identity, which helps enhance the efficacy of detecting incoming threats and attacks.
