Google’s Cyber Unit Jigsaw Introduces Intra - Secure DNS Access

Jigsaw, the division owned by Google  parent Alphabet, has revealed Intra, a new app aimed at protecting users from state-sponsored censorship.

Intra is a new app that aims to prevent DNS manipulation attacks. Whenever you visit a website, the easy-to-remember web address is converted to a less-than-memorable IP address — often over an unsecured connection. That makes it easy for oppressive governments — like Turkey, which has used this technique before — to intercept web addresses requests and either kill them in their tracks to stop sites from loading, or redirect to a fake site.

By passing all your browsing queries and app traffic through an encrypted connection to a trusted Domain Name Server, Intra says it ensures you can use your app without meddling or get to the right site without interference. The app uses Google’s own trusted DNS server by default, but users can also funnel their browsing requests through Cloudflare,  which also hosts its own publicly accessible secure DNS server, or any other secure DNS server.

Jigsaw has already seen some successes in parts of the world where internet access is restricted or monitored. The government in Venezuela reportedly used DNS manipulation to prevent citizens from accessing news sites and social networks.  (TechCrunch, October 3, 2018)