Whalebone, the leading DNS security provider among the global Telecommunications sector, announces significant progress and achievements of the European Union’s DNS4EU program throughout the first half of 2024. Entrusted to Whalebone’s leadership, this initiative aims to secure Europeans’ critical infrastructure and services via innovative and reliable cybersecurity solutions.

As the appointed Consortium Leader for the European Union's DNS4EU project for secure infrastructure, Whalebone has been working with the support of 13 consortium members from 10 countries to develop and operate the official DNS resolver for the EU – an independent EU-based DNS protection to provide real-time reaction on threats, with easy distribution to institutions and citizens.

"Whalebone’s collaboration with other DNS4EU stakeholders has shown that national cybersecurity organizations can work well together toward a common goal," stated Magdalena Krucka, DNS4EU Communication Manager at Whalebone. "We are grateful for the invaluable contributions from our partners, ensuring a high level of protection and privacy for the EU's critical services."

DNS4EU solutions are already available for securing digital infrastructures.

DNS4EU Summary

Supported by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), DNS4EU aims to strengthen the digital security and independence of European Union citizens, governments, and other institutions. The DNS4EU program for secure infrastructure is designed to provide robust DNS security for public institutions and their employees, ministries, local governments or municipalities, healthcare, education, and other critical services. Additionally, it aids organizations in complying with regulatory requirements to keep data within European borders.

As these organizations often face challenges to independently developing and maintaining high-level cybersecurity measures (such as election cycles or funding), the DNS4EU project solves these challenges by providing a Europe-based, centralized, scalable solution to ensure the highest standards of security and privacy, compliant with EU regulations.

Organizations do not need to be governmental institutions to take advantage of the DNS4EU program. It provides a solution for any organizations providing essential public services, which can include for example healthcare, communications, utilities, transportation, or banking/financial services.

An Alliance Led by Whalebone

Extensive experience in large-scale cybersecurity projects and collaborations with global telecommunications companies have given Whalebone great expertise in the cybersecurity arena. Deloitte ranks Whalebone 22nd in its Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe 2024 report, and the Financial Times’ Sifted Leaderboard 2024 of the fastest-growing companies in Central Europe ranks Whalebone at number 20. 

Following a rigorous due diligence process, the European Commission appointed Whalebone as DNS4EU Consortium Leader in late 2022, confirming its status as a trusted provider of secure DNS servers.

DNS4EU Consortium Members and Associated Partners include: CZ.NIC (CZ), Czech Technical University in Prague/CVUT (CZ), DNSC (RO), NASK (PL), SZTAKI (HU), ABILAB (IT), DESEC (DE), TIME.LEX (BE), CESNET (CZ), F-SECURE (FI), Centro Nacional de Ciberseguranca (PT), and the Ministry of Electronic Governance (BG).

“Our work with the Consortium, Associated Partners, CERTS, CSIRTs, and other national cybersecurity agencies aims to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic attacks on critical European infrastructure,” added Ms. Krucka, “the idea being that a malicious threat discovered in one country can be blocked more quickly to prevent spreading across multiple regions.”

DNS4EU Achievements in 2024

Solutions are readily available for DNS4EU, with DNS4GOV available for organizations outside the EU. Many new initiatives are already underway so far in 2024:

• Onboarding and Collaborations – More than 10 national cybersecurity centers are in the later stages of the onboarding cycle, with three CERTs running proof-of-concepts (PoCs) with European national cybersecurity centers. This collaborative effort aims to extend protective services to the entire government and public infrastructure.
• Threat Intelligence Sharing – Six CERTs have joined the Malware Information Sharing Platform (MISP) to exchange Threat Intelligence and enabling immediate protection against emerging threats, and the Consortium is in contact with almost 40 CERTs across Europe – for both public and private sectors.
• Engagement and Outreach – Whalebone has actively participated in eight conferences and hosted six workshops and webinars, reaching over 440 participants. The DNS4EU stakeholder community has grown to 342 members, reflecting the widespread interest and support for the initiative.

According to George Buhai, Senior Government Liaison at Whalebone, “For stakeholders that send us their threat intelligence data, we can provide the solution to help block malicious attacks immediately, rather than them only informing people that they need to be careful of some new threat. Or, at very least, we recommend that you send the threat intel data by feed, and we can block it via our other customers in your region.”

Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) have proven crucial to DNS4EU, providing significant threat intelligence to help improve threat detection and real-time awareness. National Centers for Cybersecurity (NCSCs) guide government institutions and the public on cybersecurity, often providing DNS4EU services (or DNS4GOV outside the EU) with infrastructure from Whalebone. Telcos partnered with DNS4EU are able to leverage their infrastructures and government connections for nationwide deployment of the protective DNS service.

“Cooperation on this level has never been done before. My job is to connect every European cybersecurity institution. If any CERTs, CSIRTs, or other national cybersecurity agencies are already trying to develop their own solutions, we are happy to have a dialogue on the DNS4EU program,” added Mr. Buhai.

Join us at these upcoming DNS4EU Events

Whalebone urges stakeholders in European cybersecurity to join upcoming events to learn more about DNS4EU:

• September 9-11 – Cybercon in Brno, organized by the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NUKIB).
• October 1 – Cyber Threat Intelligence for Europe (CTI-EU) event in Brussels, organized by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).
• October 15 – First DNS4EU Stakeholder Group Online Conference (details to be announced via member communications).

For more information or to join the alliance, visit: https://www.joindns4.eu