Celebrating Five Years of Security & Privacy - A Look Back at Quad9's Impact on Cybersecurity
A Look Back at Quad9's Impact on Cybersecurity
A Step Back in Time
It seems like yesterday that Quad9 was no more than a pilot project offering recursive DNS services to the public at no charge — yet here we are, now celebrating our five-year anniversary. Looking back at our year one target metrics, we’re astounded by the amount of growth we’ve experienced and the impact we’ve had on cybersecurity and online privacy. That’s why we wanted to take the opportunity to walk down memory lane and explore how you have helped Quad9 grow into the service that it is today.
A Stroll Down Memory Lane
Just a few months after our production launch in November 2017, we published an article discussing “what we’ve done so far”. We were thrilled by the metrics delivered in that February 2018 piece, but we had no idea how rapidly Quad9 would expand in the coming years thanks to public support, donations, grants, and the ever-expanding need for robust security and privacy measures for all connected devices.
To truly grasp the growth Quad9 has made over the past few years, we thought it would be fun to compare some metrics in that original “what we’ve done so far” article to present day performance.
| Performance Metric | Quad9 (2018)* | Quad9 (2022)* | Change |
| Global Resolver Locations | 70 | 183 | +161% |
| Average Daily Blocks | 10 million | 220 million | +2100% |
| Active Malicious Domains | 1.1 million | 3.5 million+ | +218% |
| Countries Deployed | 40 | >100 | +150% |
Looking into the Future & How You Can Help
Although taking a moment to admire one’s accomplishments is important, Quad9 remains steadfast in its goals of enabling a safer ecosystem for the global community of internet users. Quad9 is poised to continue its growth as one of the leading free, recursive, anycast DNS platforms. Quad9 has no intention of slowing expansion of sponsorship roles with both threat intelligence providers who can supply actionable data and general funding partners who recognize the impact of promoting online security, privacy, and safety.
"Over the last five years, everyone here on the Quad9 team, myself included, have been amazed to watch the growth of our services, the positive effect we've had on the security and privacy for millions of users, and the enthusiasm of those that use our DNS resolver and believe in our mission. I'd like to thank the group of incredible people here working the long hours who have made it happen," said John Todd, General Manager. "We're also grateful for the help that has been given to us by others. We couldn't be successful without our sponsors and partners who have given us the ability to deliver our truly world-class capacity and geographic distribution, as well as our individual donors who support our mission. It's clear that there is a need for our security and privacy solutions delivered via a stable, fast DNS system. We've been right on target for five years, and we're excited to keep the momentum going in the future."
Given its non-profit status, donations play a large role in the ability for Quad9 to continue improving the security, performance, and privacy of internet users via its free recursive DNS service. As we approach the season of holidays and giving, or perhaps you celebrate Giving Tuesday, we ask that you keep Quad9 in mind if you find yourself in a position to comfortably provide any support. Click here for more information on donating to Quad9. We appreciate our sponsors, partners, users, and anyone who supports making the internet a safer, more private aspect of being connected.
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