DNSFilter is a company that offers threat protection & content filtering for MSP partners and mid-sized and enterprise companies. Our software blocks malicious site content in real time and provides important visibility for IT teams. Pulse 2.0 interviewed DNSFilter CTO TK Keanini to learn more about the company.
TK Keanini’s Background
What is TK Keanini’s background? Keanini said:
“The short version of my background is that although I am new to DNSFilter, I have been serving as a CTO since 2001 in various cybersecurity companies of different sizes, including the most recent one, which was Cisco Secure.”
“The longer version of my story begins with my upbringing in Hawaii. I started my career as a professional musician, then transitioned into video game development, and eventually became the VP of Networking and Security for an online trading company. However, the details of this journey might be better suited for another time and article. But I can tell you that all of my experience, no matter how far away it seems from my current role, serves me well at DNSFilter.”
What are your primary responsibilities as CTO?
“The role of a CTO should be adaptable to the company’s needs at each stage of growth. At DNSFilter, the role involves representing the customer from design through development and to the measurement of the value experienced by the customer. I oversee Product Design, Product Management, Research and Development, as well as Support and Customer Success. This setup allows for iterating to deliver more measurable value to the customer experience. We follow a rinse-and-repeat cycle that goes from whiteboard to general availability. How cool is that?”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Keanini reflected:
“I have a few stories that all share a common theme: Customers expressing their happiness and the value they have found in our product. For so long, I have been working to make cybersecurity experts more effective at defending their networks. Now, I finally have the opportunity to offer something effective to non-experts. This includes small organizations, K-12 students who might accidentally click on something they shouldn’t, or grandparents who want to stay in touch with their grandchildren without getting hacked. These may seem like small victories, but they are meaningful to our mission, which is to make the Internet safe for everyone, not just the experts.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Keanini explained:
“DNSFilter is our flagship product, and you can find the free trial here.”
“The Domain Name System (DNS) is crucial to the functioning of the Internet. Putting it simply, we filter it, meaning we can block harmful content and allow only safe connections. It is highly effective when needed and stays out of the way when not required.”
“The features you value the most depend on your specific needs:
— If you are a Managed Service Provider, we offer features that enable you to incorporate DNSFilter into your range of products.
— If you are a small business or a home office user, you can be protected with just a few clicks, no matter where you are in the world.
— Finally, if you simply want to safeguard your home network for your family, you can easily set up protection like a cybersecurity expert with just a few clicks.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Keanini and the team face in building the company? Keanini acknowledged:
“Are you kidding? My sector of work is cybersecurity where you learn of something on Monday that makes you feel like a complete beginner. By Wednesday, you completely understand the problem, and by Friday, you could teach the class. If you are not ok with this dynamic, do not consider cybersecurity as a career. I mean that in the nicest way possible.”
“Cybersecurity is a game of innovation; bad actors innovate, forcing defenders to innovate and round and round we go. In my 30+ years of experience, it is more about creativity than it is about bits and bytes.”
Evolution Of DNSFilter’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Keanini noted:
“There are many levels of evolution and each of them has its tempo. The most rapid evolution are workstreams that track the threat landscape and adapt defenses at machine scale and at a machine speed. We see more than 130 billion DNS requests per day and at that scale, no amount of humans will be effective. The slowest evolutions are ones that deal with foundational Internet protocols. While we can influence them, the evolution here by design is slow and conservative. Evolutions like IPv6, DNS-over-HTTP, DNS-over-TLS, these are all internet scale changes and by design they take time.”
“I would be remiss if I did not mention the evolutions in AI. AI of all types has been foundational to DNSFilter being able to operate at machine-scale across the global internet. The evolution of Generative AI has touched us all in our personal and professional lives. It is always about using the right tool for the job—this was true 500 years ago and I am sure it will be true 500 years from now.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Keanini cited:
“Milestones that have been significant for me have to do with growth and how we scale.”
“We continue to be the fastest DNS resolver on the internet so when we are not blocking threats, we resolve your internet searches and clicks faster than providers who don’t even apply filtering. Four years ago we became the fastest and since then we have cut our speed in half, and currently resolve requests in 5.32ms on average.”
“In 2024, we increased the number of queries we resolve by 53%. We are currently resolving 130 billion DNS requests every single day. Between 2023 and 2024, we have increased our number of users by 40%, currently supporting over 35 million end users.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Keanini about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“There’s one thing that we block that I’m particularly proud of, because it is becoming an increasingly large problem world-wide.”
“DNSFilter permanently blocks the CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) category in our platform with no exceptions. As a cybersecurity company, DNSFilter stands for more than just defending against malware and phishing; we are also here to protect individuals’ physical and emotional safety.”
“In the last quarter of 2024, we blocked 50% more CSAM than we did in the first quarter of the year. We have an increasing number of customers who come to us for help blocking CSAM; in just the last year we deployed to a large customer and were able to measure the success we had in blocking CSAM.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Keanini affirmed:
“At DNSFilter, we do three things really well and we do them better than our competitors:
1.) Simplicity and a well-designed human experience – We need non-experts to be effective at the setup and operations. We are helping to close the skills gap by providing software that is intuitive and easy to use, so your most senior technical expert doesn’t need to manage it.
2.) Speed – We need to be the fastest at serving up your request if it is safe, and the fastest at blocking your request if it is not safe.
3.) Effectiveness and Timeliness in blocking threats – Because we can observe the internet as a whole and in near real-time, we will likely be the first to spot malicious domains and the most accurate in blocking them.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Keanini pointed out:
“DNSFilter core competency is “filtering.” We are fast, simple to use, and our filtering accuracy for the DNS protocol is what made us the leaders we are today. Moving forward, we aspire to filter other protocols with the simplicity, speed, and accuracy we deliver via DNS. It is not only a natural progression for our customers and partners, but it is also our core competency.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Keanini concluded:
“At DNSFilter, we genuinely care about the customer experience and customer feedback. In our strategy, the voice of the customer is absolutely paramount. Our MSP partners have been champions of our business since the beginning, and we are always looking for new opportunities to support their needs. At the same time, we keep our product simple so mid-market and home user customers are able to deploy without having expert management. The interface we have created, and the continued feedback from our customers, is critical to our growth and our success.”
