Verisign flogs DNS service to Neustar

Verisign DNS
(Image credit: Verisign)

Network infrastructure firm Verisign has announced the sale of its DNS service to Neustar for an undisclosed fee. The widely used address space for Verisign’s Public DNS, 64.6.64.6, will be transferred to Neustar’s UltraDNS service as part of the deal.

Neustar has pledged that the process of migrating Verisign Public DNS users over to Neustar's infrastructure will be seamless and completely transparent. 

Verisign’s Public DNS is an example of a recursive DNS service – one that has been praised for its commitment to user privacy, promising to never sell public DNS data to third parties.

Another acquisition

The addition of Verisign’s DNS service is not the first time that Neustar has acquired technology from the US firm. Back in 2018, Neustar purchased Verisign’s Security Services customer contracts to boost its security portfolio, which now comprises a web application firewall, DDoS mitigation and advanced threat intelligence.

The decision to sell its Public DNS service allows Verisign to focus on delivering core online infrastructure. According to Eb Keshavarz, Senior Vice President of Product at Verisign, the firm will continue to deliver Root Zone management and an authoritative resolution for the .com and .net top-level domains.

Hopefully, the security standards offered by Neustar’s UltraDNS solution will benefit from the acquisition of Verisign’s Public DNS, after being criticized for its lack of encryption.

“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 security services that our customers depend upon.”

Via Hosting Journalist

Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things.