In today’s digitally governed world, Domain Name System (DNS) architecture remains the foundation for nearly all internet communication. However, despite its fundamental role in enabling global connectivity, DNS is increasingly being exposed as one of the most vulnerable components of modern networks. Noah Bamfo, a Senior Network Engineer and Network Solution Architect, believes that the urgency to rethink DNS design is long overdue, especially as enterprises grow more reliant on hybrid infrastructures and cloud services.

Bamfo’s interest in DNS security emerged during his years of field deployment across critical national infrastructures. He recounted how, as early as 2019, he began noticing patterns of DNS exploitation that traditional security systems failed to catch. DNS tunneling, cache poisoning, and unauthorized resolution attempts were recurring incidents, often bypassing firewall defenses due to the inherently trusted status of DNS traffic.
His concern deepened during a project executed for Electoral Commission of a popular African country, where he was tasked with securing the DNS perimeter of the nation’s voting systems. He led the design of an advanced DNS-layer defense using Fortinet’s FortiGate appliances, configuring real-time filtering profiles, anomaly-based query detection, and deep threat intelligence integration. Bamfo stated that this project demonstrated how DNS could be weaponized if left unguarded—and equally, how powerful it could be when treated as a security control point rather than just a resolution service.

In a subsequent engagement at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), he directed the full deployment of Cisco Umbrella, integrating DNS-layer protection into the agency’s cloud and on-premise environment. By aligning DNS security with access control (via Cisco ISE), mail security (via ESA), and centralized policy enforcement (via SMA), the solution enabled intelligent threat response and improved visibility across user activity and domain access patterns. “It was transformative,” he mentioned, “to see how DNS telemetry could trigger proactive interventions before malicious payloads were even delivered.”

According to Bamfo, the most pressing challenge with DNS security today lies not in its complexity but in how it’s often misunderstood. “DNS is not just infrastructure—it is intelligence,” he emphasized. “Enterprises that treat it merely as a connectivity protocol overlook a rich layer of data that can preempt attacks.” He explained that the high entropy patterns in malicious domains, the frequency of unusual queries, and even the timing of DNS requests offer strong indicators of threat behavior—if only organizations were equipped to detect them.

He advocates for a wider adoption of AI-enhanced DNS inspection systems that can work in encrypted environments such as DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) and DNS-over-TLS (DoT). He also cautions that the growing encryption of DNS traffic—while essential for privacy—could render legacy inspection tools obsolete unless they evolve. Bamfo believes the solution lies in context-aware, privacy-preserving detection models that analyze traffic behavior without compromising content confidentiality.

He further emphasized that DNS-layer security is one of the most cost-effective strategies enterprises can adopt, particularly in resource-constrained regions. Unlike endpoint agents or complex SIEM setups, DNS protections can be deployed at the recursive resolver level and offer organization-wide coverage with minimal overhead. “In environments where budget and expertise are scarce, DNS-layer security gives you the most protection for your investment,” Bamfo noted.

Despite the benefits, he acknowledges the barriers to implementation. These include lack of awareness, difficulty integrating DNS with existing SOC workflows, and a persistent view of DNS as a non-critical function. But Bamfo remains optimistic. He believes that as threats evolve and encryption becomes the norm, more organizations will come to see DNS security not as a luxury, but as a necessity.

“To re-evaluate DNS is to reframe how we think about network security as a whole,” he concluded. “It’s about shifting from reactive defense to predictive intelligence. And DNS is where that transformation begins.”