Follow these simple steps so your organisation can use the new UK Public Sector DNS services.
Firstly and most importantly you need to register your organisation to use these services.
Service summary
As previously announced, the NCSC is working with Government Digital Services (GDS) and Nominet UK to provide the UK public sector with two reliable DNS resolution services that protect users from accessing websites known to be malicious.
The services will be available to all UK government and public sector organisations, via the internet and via the Public Services Network (PSN).
These services will be delivered in two stages – with the internet DNS service being delivered first.
What you need to do
Each public sector organisation that wants to use the new internet or PSN DNS services is individually responsible for requesting, managing and implementing the changes to their systems required to enable their transition.
In simple terms, this will involve reconfiguring your organisation’s primary and secondary DNS servers to use the IP addresses of the new DNS service.
The people responsible for managing and administering your IT infrastructure need to follow the steps below.
Step 1) Register your organisation to use the DNS services
You need to register your organisation’s intention to use one or both of the DNS services.
To do this, use the DNS UK public services DNS support tool to tell us about your organisation and its networks.
If you’re currently registered as point of contact for a PSN-connected organisation you’ll receive an email from the PSN team inviting you to register and confirm any previously provided details. This is a particularly important action that forms part of the planned migration away from the current legacy PSN core services purchased through the GCF contract.
If you have not received a PSN invitation email, but you’re the point of contact for an internet-connected organisation, you can register directly with the UK public services DNS support tool.
Step 2) Request changes to your organisation’s DNS configurations
You need to request the necessary configuration changes to all of your local DNS resolvers so you can use the new services.
ake these requests in good time, so that you’re ready to use the DNS services when they become available:
-
The internet DNS service will be available from April 2017.
-
The PSN DNS service will be available from Summer 2017.
The specific details of the changes to make to your local DNS resolvers will depend on whether you’re using a PSN assured, PSN protected, or internet connection. Full details of the new DNS services are provided within the UK public services DNS support tool.
Step 3) Make changes to your organisation’s DNS configurations
Your IT infrastructure teams or service suppliers can test and implement the configuration changes to your DNS servers once your internal change requests are approved.
Full details of the testing you can do to check your configuration and that the DNS service is working for you are on the UK public services DNS support tool.
Step 4) Stop paying for your previous DNS service
After you’ve successfully transitioned your organisation’s DNS to the new services you need to cancel any contracts or subscriptions to other DNS services.
Further information
More information on the UK public sector DNS services is available on:
Ask questions by using our contact form.
Source: National Cyber Security Centre
