In early 2022, Plasma Cloud added a very useful service called SafeDNS to the Plasma Cloud marketplace. It is one of the favorites among Plasma Cloud users. What do they offer?

SafeDNS offers cloud-based security and content control through DNS filtering. Now SafeDNS has released a brilliant new feature that can bring your network security to the next level. Let’s find out more!

Content filtering in a nutshell

First, let’s cover the basics: content filtering allows you to easily restrict unwanted or inappropriate resources of different categories, such as adult content, violence, hate, racism, drugs and other categories you may choose. This allows you to keep your network clean and safe. The SafeDNS database contains information on over 109 million websites (covering billions of web pages) divided into 61 categories and is constantly growing thanks to AI & machine learning.

What’s new?

Most content filtering services target websites. However, SafeDNS has gone one step further and built a useful feature to selectively block internet applications, called AppBlocker.

With AppBlocker you can deny access to all domains associated with a service. This includes the official website as well as a number of additional domains that may be harder to track. Identifying all of them takes time and requires regular updates, as associated domains may change over time. With the AppBlocker, you can simply choose which app you want to block and SafeDNS will take care of the details for you.

You can easily restrict access to a wide range of applications, such as file sharing, system monitoring, VPNs, etc. It is a perfect solution for various situations. Check out some common examples below.

Protection for WiFi hotspots

Secure your public WiFi network by blocking apps with illegal content or those causing network congestion such as file sharing, backup and streaming apps.

Protection for schools and campuses

Filter out inappropriate apps with dangerous or adult content to make your web student-friendly, while allowing apps that are selected by school administrators.

Protection for business networks

Provide cyber security for your office by blocking file sharing apps. This reduces the risk of dangerous files infecting your corporate network with malware, or theft of your corporate information. You may also filter out adult, illegal or irrelevant web browsing during work hours.

Protection for WiFi at large public venues

Adapt your WiFi to any audience requirements – like parents with kids, teenage concert goers, professionals attending industry events. Free your WiFi from harmful and inappropriate content on the internet.

Which apps can be blocked?

Here are some examples:

  • VPN services (NordVPN, CyberGhost VPN and more),
  • cybersecurity services (Shodan, Zscaler),
  • financial services (Ethermine, Flypool and more),
  • mail services (ProtonMail, Thunderbird, Hushmail and more),
  • remote desktop services (RemotePC, AnyDesk, TeamViewer),
  • ecosystems (Apple, Google, WeChat and more),
  • file sharing services (Dropbox, uTorrent, 4shared and more),
  • messaging apps (Slack, Snapchat, Viber and more),
  • portals (Baidu, Yahoo, etc),
  • technology services (GitLab, GitHub),
  • VoIP (RingCentral, Zoom, LogmeIn and more),
  • etc.

You are free to choose any app or app group to block, as the list is fully customizable.

Try it out and see for yourself!

The App Blocker feature is included in the SafeDNS service and available now on the Plasma Cloud marketplace. To learn more about the marketplace and how to get started, please see this article.