The catalogue of the Restena Foundation’ services include thirty services divided into four categories: email, hosting, network, computer security, and .lu. It is in this last category that Restena has implemented - in January 2025 - its new service: a DNS firewall.
A customisable tool
With the DNS firewall, Restena aims to provide an additional tool for institutions connected to the Luxembourg research and education network; the RESTENA network, which it has been managing since its inception; to protect their IT network. By enabling them to control and prevent potential intrusions by malicious persons within their own computer network, firewalls are an undeniable asset.
Thanks to it, IT departments are better equipped to guarantee their institutions’ IT security. Beyond providing protection against cyber threats; such as phishing and malware activation; the firewall implemented by Restena enables them to customise content filtering to suit their specific needs. In particular, they can give different access according to the type of user (teacher, student, researcher on a given topic, etc.).
In addition to the IT services, the firewall guarantees employees, teachers, and students that they legitimate use their institution's network, thereby ensuring that they do not jeopardise the overall security of everyone. If they attempt to access an Internet domain defined as problematic by their IT department, they are either warned of the danger of their action or blocked.
A complementary service to the public DNS resolver
To benefit from the DNS firewall, interested institutions must use the public resolvers specifically set up by Restena for the research and education community as part of its Public DNS Resolver service. Providing data security, confidentiality and protection for DNS requests, this service is closely linked to the DNS firewall.
Once they access the firewall, institutions benefit from a global filtering policy fed and updated by Restena. It is up to the institutions, if they so decide, to adjust this global policy and add additional filtering policies.
The result of a research project
The DNS firewall has been developed as part of the European research project « Enhancing Cybersecurity Services for the Luxembourgish Research and Education community » (LuCySe4RE) led by Restena from 2023 for 3 years. During 2024, the tool was thus tested, fed and validated over many months by the project's partner institutions.
At the same time, the data collected as part of this project will be used throughout its duration to feed the global filtering policy provided by Restena.
Institutions connected to the RESTENA network - research institutes, educational and cultural institutions in Luxembourg - willing to benefit from the DNS firewall can notify their interest to noc@restena.lu
