Traffic Centralization and Digital Sovereignty: An Analysis Under the Lens of DNS Servers

TL;DR

This paper examines the centralization of DNS services and its implications for digital sovereignty, proposing a measurement approach to assess DNS hosting concentration and country dependencies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to quantify DNS centralization and digital sovereignty, providing insights into provider dominance and country-level dependencies.

Findings

Identification of top-10 DNS providers

Evidence of DNS centralization in the Internet

Assessment of country dependencies on major DNS providers

Abstract

The Domain Name System (DNS) service is one of the pillars of the Internet. This service allows users to access websites on the Internet through easy-to-remember domain names rather than complex numeric IP addresses. DNS acts as a directory that translates the domain names into a corresponding IP address, allowing communication between computers on different networks. However, the concentration of DNS service providers on the Internet affects user security, privacy, and network accessibility. The reliance on a small number of large DNS providers can lead to (a) risks of data breaches and disruption of service in the event of failures and (b) concerns about the digital sovereignty of countries regarding DNS hosting. In this sense, this work approaches this issue of DNS concentration on the Internet by presenting a solution to measure DNS hosting centralization and digital sovereignty in countries. With the data obtained through these measurements, relevant questions are answered, such as which are the top-10 DNS providers, if there is DNS centralization, and how dependent countries are on such providers.