DNS Edge: Our First 2019 Release (We’re just getting warmed up)

The polar vortex may have cooled things down, but BlueCat DNS Edge is getting warmed up. We just kicked off the first 2019 release, providing customers easier insight and more visibility and control when a DNS query is answered.

Let’s walk through the main highlights and how organizations will use them.

DNS Insight Graphs Become Interactive

What’s the cliché phrase? “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.” It’s been said time and time again when talking about DNS, and we couldn’t agree more. This update gets you to the needles you care about, faster. Now you can hone in on a specific data point with a simple click, adjusting the filter and all graphs around that data point. Click subsequent data points to drill deeper. Then, navigate over to the DNS activity page to review the queries behind the results. It’s like having a giant magnet to find the needles – and who doesn’t like giant magnets?

Check out this animation of the feature in action. In this example, we may be interested in viewing low-volume queries not affected by policies, leading us to discover query types that are NXDOMAIN—perhaps indicating a server misconfiguration. To look closer at all queries matching this search, we can click the DNS activity tab to view all queries matching this criteria within the last 30 days.

More data with each query! Adding Authoritative Nameservers to the details

Recently discovered were tactics by adversaries to hijack DNS infrastructure. Now, DNS Edge displays the Authoritative Nameserver within the details of a DNS query.

And there’s more! Create policies against this data. Do you have a list of registrars with a poor reputation? Simply add to a domain list and create a policy against the domain for their Authoritative Nameservers. Do you have a Site with purpose-built IoT devices like Point-of-Sales machines? Create a policy to limit responses from Authoritative Nameservers you know and trust. This animation shows the added checkboxes to apply the policy on “query or answer” or “authoritative nameservers.”

Cache clearing of Service Points for Sites

We all love caching – it makes for faster query resolution and lightens the load on your network and the internet as a world-wide whole. But for some changes, for example, a Network Administrator moving a corporate service from one IP address to another, clearing the cache before TTLs expire would save a lot of headache for support teams fielding calls from your customers unable to reach the service. With this update, easily clear the cache for all Service Points on a per-Site basis. No ibuprofen needed.

In this animation, we navigate to a Site and with the click of a button, clear the cache for all Service Points for this Site.

With DNS, there is no cooling down—it help runs your network, the internet and more. At BlueCat, things are heating up and we’re excited to deliver you more intelligent security on your DNS traffic with BlueCat DNS Edge.