'PDNS for Schools' to provide cyber resilience for more institutions

‘PDNS for Schools’ is a cyber security service, developed by the NCSC, that’s designed to protect schools from a variety of online threats.

Following the success of the first phase rollout last year, we’re excited to announce the full launch of ‘PDNS (Protective Domain Name Service) for Schools’, which extends the benefits of the service to even more educational settings across the UK.

Building on our recently announced partnership with Cloudflare and Accenture, the NCSC is offering ‘PDNS for Schools’ free of charge to a wider range of organisations. This will mean more schools – regardless of their resources – can now benefit from enhanced cyber resilience.

The service can now be used by:

• local authorities or eligible public sector networks from the devolved administrations of the UK (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) that provide DNS to their schools

• local authorities in England that provide DNS to their maintained schools

• school internet service providers in England who manage school DNS services and have wide reach into the school sector

• multi academy trusts, academies or independent schools that do not receive their DNS from any of the providers above and are able to implement the ‘PDNS for Schools’ service

'PDNS for Schools' helps prevent malware, ransomware, phishing attacks, and other online threats from reaching school networks. It complements (but does not replace) the safeguarding filtering measures that schools should already have in place. 

If the above list includes your organisation, you can sign up for ‘PDNS for Schools’ by asking your DNS provider to register for PDNS through MyNCSC. If you are unsure who your DNS provider is, please ask whoever manages your school's IT or internet connection to check whether your DNS provider is eligible for the service.

‘PDNS for Schools’ is part of a wider cyber security offer of guidance and tools the NCSC has provided so schools can focus on what they do best: educating pupils. For more additional information about the service, please visit our PDNS web pages. 

Sarah Lyons

NCSC Deputy Director for Economy and Society