For too long, we’ve treated DNS as a simple utility. It’s just a phonebook for the internet, right? Treating it that way is a mistake. Nearly every single malicious action, whether it’s a phishing link, a command-and-control (C2) callback, or data exfiltration, starts with a DNS query. It is integral to the attacker workflow. So, what if you disrupt that workflow by attacking the utility underneath?

That’s the entire premise behind Infoblox Protective DNS (PDNS). Instead of just resolving names, your DNS server becomes an intelligent security control point. Using a mechanism called Response Policy Zones (RPZ), the server essentially checks every query against a threat intelligence list. If a user tries to go somewhere bad, the RPZ policy kicks in, returning an NXDOMAIN (non-existent domain) or redirecting them to a safe place. The attack is stopped dead before it can even establish a connection.

The beauty of this is its simplicity and universality. Everything on your network from servers and laptops to IoT cameras and cloud workloads is using DNS. You can flip a switch and protect your entire infrastructure without deploying a single new agent.

Recently at Security Field Day 14, we had a chance to see PDNS in action and learn how it’s part of a larger framework that Infoblox is using to root out the bad actors.

The Secret Sauce: Hunting Cartels, Not Chasing Attacks

Having a PDNS solution is great, but its effectiveness is entirely dependent on the quality of its threat intelligence. This is where most security vendors are still playing whack-a-mole, chasing millions of individual malicious domains. Infoblox took a radically different approach, one pioneered at the National Security Agency (NSA).

Instead of chasing the low-level attackers, they go after the “cybercrime cartels”. These are the centralized suppliers providing the malicious infrastructure. Why block one phishing URL when you can identify and block the entire infrastructure of a group like Prolific Puma, an organization that has purchased over 75,000 domains just to run a malicious URL shortening service?

Infoblox’s threat intel team tracks over 204,000 of these threat actor clusters by analyzing how they build and stage their infrastructure. Infoblox is constantly monitoring domain registrations, name server movements, and other statistical tells. The result? They see bad domains an average of 68.4 days before traditional tools confirm them as malicious. They preemptively block 82% of domain-based threats before a customer even makes the first query. Because they’re tracking entities whose entire business is crime, the false positive rate is insanely low at just 0.0002%.

The Power of Integrated DDI

Infoblox isn’t just a security company; they’re a DDI (DNS, DHCP, and IPAM) company. Integrating PDNS directly into the core DDI platform is important for two reasons.

First is operational sanity. When a domain gets blocked, is it a security issue or a network issue? Without integration, you get the security team and the network team pointing fingers at each other. With an integrated DDI platform, it’s one system, one point of accountability. Problem solved. By blocking threats at the DNS layer, you can slash the traffic hitting your downstream firewalls and SIEMs by 40-50%. That relieves pressure across the system overall.

The other is rich context. Because the platform also handles DHCP and IPAM, it knows exactly who and what made that malicious query. Instead of just an IP address, your SOC analyst gets the device name, MAC address, and user info. This turns a multi-hour investigation into a quick, decisive action. This context is also the foundation for building granular Zero Trust policies. For instance, allowing a user’s laptop broad access while restricting a printer to only resolve its update server is a much better way to isolate devices that don’t need to be moving across the network. Good hygiene for device communications means far fewer point-of-sale systems and fish tank thermometers causing issues.

Bringing IT All Together

For years, we’ve been conditioned to believe that cybersecurity is about building higher walls and reacting faster after they inevitably get breached. That’s a losing battle. The proactive, foundational approach of activating the potential of your DNS infrastructure changes the perspective entirely. You are no longer playing defense, instead you’re taking the fight to the attackers outside the walls.

By shifting focus from individual attacks to the malicious infrastructure suppliers and integrating that intelligence directly into the DDI core, you gain a massive strategic advantage. You’re not just blocking threats; you’re making it economically unviable for the cartels to operate. Stop treating DNS like a passive utility. It’s the most powerful, context-aware security sensor and enforcer you already own. It’s time you started using it that way.

To learn more about Infoblox and their Protective DNS solutions, make sure to check out their website at https://Infoblox.com. To see the Infoblox presentation from Security Field Day, make sure to check out the Infoblox Security Field Day appearance page