With spyware and cybercrime on the rise, it has become more important than ever to safeguard your privacy. An important step to do this is to enable secure DNS in Google Chrome. Find out what Secure DNS is and how to enable it in Google Chrome
Secure DNS, or DNS over HTTPS as it is technically known, is a feature to ensure the privacy and security of your web browser. But what exactly is secure DNS? How does it work? What are the steps to enable secure DNS in Google Chrome? We will answer all these questions in this article.
What is Secure DNS and how to enable it in Google Chrome
What are DNS?
We access the Internet through alphanumeric web addresses. You can enter text strings like “www.google.com” in the address bar of any browser to navigate to a website.
The thing is, these addresses don’t really exist. Computers, as a rule, only deal with numbers. Each connected machine is identified by its IP address on the Internet, which consists only of numbers. So how does internet browsing work?
Using the domain name system (DNS). In a nutshell, DNS is an online directory that matches domain names (such as google.com) to their respective IP addresses. DNS servers are publicly accessible and are commonly used by web browsers to determine the correct IP addresses of websites.
Why is traditional DNS vulnerable to cyber attacks?
The problem with DNS lookups is that they were never designed with security or privacy in mind. Any resourceful hacker can intercept your browser’s DNS requests and respond with false information.
Your browser can be redirected to a fake website or track your browsing activity. This can also be done by a malicious ISP, leaving your sensitive data in the hands of others.
The solution: DNS over HTTPS
The solution is simple: end to end encryption . You may be aware of the HTTPS protocol in use these days. An improvement over the standard HTTP protocol, these requests are encrypted. This prevents hackers from intercepting those requests and extracting information from them.
To similarly protect your DNS requests, you can enable DNS over HTTPS in Google Chrome. This feature is called Secure DNS and it is fast becoming a new security standard on the web.
Please note that this feature also depends on the DNS server and the website in question. Unfortunately, not all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer a secure DNS server or serve encrypted requests. Your best option in these scenarios is to switch to a custom DNS server.
How to enable secure DNS in Google Chrome
Secure DNS was originally an experimental feature in Chrome. Activating it required navigating some hidden menus in the browser. Now, however, secure DNS has been integrated into the normal operation of Google Chrome.
- To enable Secure DNS on your computer, open a new tab in your browser and click the three dots button at the top right.
- open Setting and scroll down to the section Privacy & Security .
- Click on Security.
- Scroll down and select Advanced . This is where you can enable DNS in your browser, as well as specify which DNS server to use.
- By default, secure DNS should be enabled in your browser. But this depends on your ISP, which may or may not provide the service. It is better to switch to a more reliable DNS service. Use the drop down menu to choose Google Public DNS .
Simply enabling secure DNS in your browser is not enough. There is no way to confirm that your DNS requests are encrypted, leaving you in the dark about the actual state of your security.
This is a concern if you are using your ISP’s DNS servers. Not all Internet Service Providers have fully upgraded to the latest standards. This can give you a false sense of security while still working without secure DNS.
Fortunately, it is easy to check if your browser is using secure DNS or not. Many online tools check the security status of your DNS requests without any software installation. For this guide, we will use Cloudflare’s online utility.
- To check if your browser is using secure DNS or not, go to .
- Click the button check my browser to start the scan. The test will complete in just a few seconds and will display the results below.
As you can see, the test was unable to detect secure DNS. You can fix this problem by using a different secure DNS server or by contacting your Internet Service Provider. Once I enabled Google Chrome Secure DNS through CloudFlare, I was able to get a green check.
Is a secure DNS necessary?
With hacking and cyber-attacks increasing by the day, the security measures to combat them must evolve to keep pace as well. Secure DNS is one of the easiest ways to protect your privacy without drastic changes.
Your browser’s DNS settings may seem like a small thing, but they are a crucial component of Internet security. Malicious entities can mess up your DNS requests to track your activity or direct you to dangerous sites.
Therefore, it is necessary to enable and test Secure DNS in your Google Chrome browser.
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