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Boost DORA Compliance with DDI and DNS Security

January 29, 2025 | Written by: Surinder Paul | ,

Boost Dora Compliance with Ddi and Dns Security

With DORA now in force, the financial sector faces pressure to bolster resilience and meet new demands on managing cyber risk. For better risk management, simpler incident response, and timely reporting, boost your DORA compliance with DDI and DNS Security.

With the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) now in force, the financial sector faces mounting pressure to bolster digital resilience and ensure compliance with new demands on understanding and managing cyber risk. DNS security measures, including DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management (DDI) solutions, can mitigate operational risks and improve security posture to align financial institutions with DORAโ€™s stringent requirements. This article explores how organizations can boost DORA compliance with DDI and DNS Security.

What is DORA, and why does it matter?

DORA was established to strengthen the cybersecurity and operational resilience of EU financial institutions, including banks, payment service providers, cryptocurrency firms, and the information and communication technology (ICT) providers that supply them. It focuses on ICT risk management, incident reporting, resilience testing, and third-party accountability to ensure stability across the financial sector.

The regulation came into force in January 2023 and applied from 17th January 2025, so European financial firms and IT providers must ensure their compliance in the year ahead. Further, it has a global impact meaning that firms operating across borders must also align with its standards. Similarly, UK financial organizations face equivalent rules set out by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), enforced from 31st March 2025. These rules include most types of financial organizations and focus similarly on operational resilience and risk mapping.

DORA also coincides with NIS2 (Network and Information Systems Directive 2), which entered into force in October 2024. Both have a shared focus on risk assessment and mitigation and expand their scope to the supply chain. Thanks to their complementary nature, financial firms falling under the purview of NIS2 and DORA can efficiently achieve compliance with both.

Challenges for DORA compliance

To achieve compliance, financial institutions and their ICT providers need to be armed with cybersecurity tools, processes, and training to protect critical systems. This extends to managing third-party risks, demanding rigorous oversight to ensure all of their ICT providers comply with DORA requirements.

Organizations must reliably manage vast amounts of operational data across hybrid infrastructures to assess risks effectively, which can be resource-intensive. Further, they will need to deliver swift and reliable reporting of ICT incidents within tight deadlines. Continuous monitoring and real-time threat detection across the entire IT estate are therefore essential, including DNS traffic.

Boosting DORA compliance with DDI: The role of DNS security

DNS servers are the backbone of modern network infrastructure, providing essential connectivity for critical financial services. However, as cyber threats evolve, DNS servers have become prime targets and vectors for attacks such as DDoS, data exfiltration, and phishing, exposing organizations to significant cyber risks.

As a critical component of financial ICT, DNS servers can be transformed into the first line of defense against the key security measures required by DORA:

  • Risk Management Framework: Modern DDI solutions leveraging IPAM for Network Source of Truth (NSoT) offer comprehensive visibility on whatโ€™s connected on networks, crucial for effective risk management. Built-in DNS Security, powered by DNS Threat Intelligence and advanced access control, proactively reduces cyber risks and strengthens operational resilience.
  • ICT Incident Reporting: Advanced DNS-centric threat detection technologies enable early identification of sophisticated attacks. DNS insights and analytics help handle incidents swiftly and aggregate data for reporting purposes to meet DORA requirements.
  • Third-Party Risk Oversight: Smart DNS Security enforces Zero Trust with granular access controls and continuous verification. This adheres to the “never assume trust, always verify” principle to ensure third-party resilience and regulatory alignment.

By elevating DORA compliance with DDI, organizations can strengthen defenses, meet DORAโ€™s stringent requirements, and enhance overall network resilience.

The implications of neglecting DNS security

Failure to prioritize DNS security can have severe financial, operational, and reputational consequences. DNS attacks cost financial organizations an average of $1.2 million per incident, with 29% leading to data theft and 73% causing application downtime. Nowadays, data breaches average $4.88 million in damages. 

The impact of a DNS attack has increased further under the stringent requirements of DORA. The regulation imposes significant penalties for non-compliance, including fines of up to โ‚ฌ1M or 2% of annual turnover. Prolonged disruptions and missed reporting deadlines erode customer trust, causing reputational damage and business loss. A comprehensive DNS Security solution is essential to mitigate these risks, maintain compliance, and protect critical financial operations. 

How EfficientIP helps meet DORA head-on

DNS security is crucial in proactively protecting, early detecting, and effectively responding to cyber threats, especially under DORAโ€™s stringent requirements. EfficientIPโ€™s 360ยฐ DNS Security offers a comprehensive, flexible, and robust solution, positioning DNS as the first line of defense against a wide range of DNS-based threats. This solution ensures data protection, service continuity, and operational efficiency, aligning with DORAโ€™s stringent requirements for financial institutions by addressing threats throughout their lifecycle:

  • Proactively Protect: Leverage advanced DNS filtering, Hybrid DNS Engine switches, and DNSSEC to prevent attacks such as DDoS, data exfiltration, and phishing before they reach critical systems.
  • Early Detect: Detect sophisticated threats early, including DNS tunneling and zero-day attacks, using DNS Transaction Inspection (DTI) and AI-driven algorithms, ensuring compliance with DORAโ€™s early detection and reporting requirements.
  • Effectively Respond & Recover: Implement adaptive countermeasures such as IP blocking and cache protection to swiftly mitigate threats. Automated threat remediation and seamless integration with security tools ensure quick recovery and compliance with DORAโ€™s incident response timelines.

This 360ยฐ approach enhances security by enabling faster and deeper threat detection, ensuring effective response, and safeguarding critical networks. It strengthens operational efficiency through automated detection, response, and recovery, minimizing manual intervention. Additionally, it improves risk management and compliance with DORA by providing continuous monitoring, visibility, and detailed reporting to mitigate cyber risks and enhance resilience.

In addition, EfficientIPโ€™s DDI solutions provide vital DNS analytics and insights, enabling early identification of anomalies, as well as real-time incident investigation. Forensics and reporting are also enhanced thanks to detailed logs and analytics which help generate comprehensive incident reports required for regulatory reporting under DORA.

3 key use cases for boosting DORA compliance with DDI and DNS security

Here are three example use cases highlighting the value of EfficientIP DDI and DNS Security solutions for DORA:

  1. Enforce Zero Trust Access Control: DNS security ensures only trusted users and devices access critical resources, supporting DORAโ€™s need for robust security frameworks.
  2. Early Threat Detection: DNS security enables early identification of threats like DNS tunneling, meeting DORAโ€™s requirement for timely detection of cyber incidents.
  3. Efficient Incident Response: Automated DNS response systems ensure swift mitigation, while real-time analytics and threat investigation tools help organizations meet DORAโ€™s reporting and recovery timelines for incidents.

Avoid DORA fines: Assess your DNS security risks now

By integrating EfficientIPโ€™s DDI and DNS Security solutions, organizations can ensure data protection, service continuity, and operational efficiency to meet DORAโ€™s stringent requirements for ICT governance, risk management, and incident response.

To further your DORA compliance, why not evaluate the effectiveness of your cybersecurity risk-management measures? Engage with us for an in-depth analysis, or try our simple, free Data Exfiltration Test. By assessing your networkโ€™s security posture now, you can identify and address potential risks, helping you avoid future DORA fines.

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