DNS Security: Critical and Still Often Overlooked

Every company depends on its domain name. It is the digital front door to your business — powering your website, email, and connections to countless online services. Yet DNS, the system that ensures domain names resolve correctly to servers, is often neglected. Most executives rarely think about DNS at all until something goes wrong.

The reality is simple: poor DNS management can cause downtime, email disruption, and even security breaches that threaten your brand reputation. Worse still, mismanaged DNS records can leave doors wide open for attackers to take control of unused subdomains and exploit your company name to spread malware or run phishing attacks.

DNS is not just a technical necessity. It is a critical part of your company’s security and continuity strategy.

The Problem With Default DNS Services

Most businesses use whatever DNS service comes bundled with their domain registrar or hosting provider. It’s convenient: register a domain, and DNS is set up automatically. The problem is that these default services are usually basic, lack advanced monitoring features, and provide little visibility into what’s really happening with your domain records.

Registrars and hosters are in the business of selling domains and hosting packages. DNS is simply included as an add-on, not treated as a critical security layer. That means you often don’t get alerting, performance optimization, or automated protection against common attack vectors.

Why Cloudflare Offers More

This is where providers like Cloudflare stand out. Cloudflare runs one of the world’s fastest and most reliable DNS infrastructures, serving millions of domains globally. But performance is only part of the story.

Cloudflare’s DNS security includes:

• Globally distributed resolution: Queries are answered from the nearest data center, reducing latency and ensuring fast load times.
• Built-in security: Protection against DNS cache poisoning, hijacking, and denial-of-service attacks.
• Visibility and monitoring: Analytics to track unusual activity or configuration changes.
• Flexibility: Easy configuration for complex setups, multi-site businesses, and integrations with cloud services.

But even with Cloudflare, DNS is not a “set it and forget it” system. The records themselves — which servers they point to, which subdomains are active, which services are connected — must be maintained and monitored. That’s where many businesses fall short.

For example, your company may once have run a test environment at test.yourcompany.com or a marketing campaign on a third-party platform at promo.yourcompany.com. If those services are shut down but the DNS entries remain, attackers can claim those abandoned resources and effectively take over the subdomain.

This is known as a subdomain takeover. From the outside, customers will see your trusted company domain, but the content is now controlled by an attacker. It’s an ideal setup for phishing, malware distribution, or even impersonating your business to steal customer data.

Large companies like Microsoft, Uber, and Shopify have all suffered incidents where forgotten DNS entries became takeover points. SMEs are equally at risk — in fact, attackers often target smaller businesses precisely because they assume monitoring is weak or nonexistent.

Why Monitoring Matters

DNS records are not static. New services get added, campaigns end, cloud platforms change, and employees come and go. Without continuous oversight, it’s easy for DNS to become a patchwork of old records and forgotten entries.

Monitoring means:

• Identifying and removing unused or dangling subdomains.
• Ensuring all records are still pointing to valid, active services.
• Verifying that security-related records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are present and correct.
• Detecting unauthorized changes or suspicious activity quickly.

This is not work that should be done once a year. Like backups or firewall rules, DNS security and health requires ongoing attention.

DNS and Email Deliverability

DNS security is also the backbone of modern email security and deliverability. When properly configured, DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC prove to receiving mail servers that emails from your domain are legitimate. Without them, your messages are more likely to land in spam folders or, worse, be spoofed by attackers pretending to be you.

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Defines which servers are allowed to send mail for your domain.
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a digital signature to verify that emails haven’t been altered.
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance): Ensures both SPF and DKIM checks are enforced and provides reports on suspicious activity.

If these records are missing or misconfigured, your domain becomes an easy target for spoofing. Attackers can send fake emails that appear to come from your business, damaging your reputation and potentially tricking customers or partners into revealing sensitive information.

Proper DNS security management ensures these protections are always in place, monitored, and updated — strengthening both your brand reputation and your ability to deliver email reliably.

The Business Case for Professional DNS Management

Downtime caused by DNS issues can cost thousands per hour in lost business. A domain takeover can cause even greater damage, from stolen customer credentials to reputational harm that takes years to repair.

And without properly managed SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, your emails may never reach your customers’ inboxes, or worse — they may be weaponized against you in spoofing and phishing campaigns.

Proper DNS security management is not just a technical matter — it’s a business-critical safeguard. For a fraction of what most companies spend on their internet connection or office rent, DNS monitoring can prevent incidents that might otherwise cripple operations.