Mozilla partners with CIRA to upgrade Canada's online privacy through Firefox

OTTAWA, July 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the effort to enhance the privacy of as many Canadians as possible, CIRA is proud to announce that CIRA Canadian Shield has been chosen as the default DNS over HTTPS provider for Firefox users in Canada.

CIRA joins the Mozilla Trusted Recursive Resolver (TRR) Program and becomes the first organization to provide country-specific encrypted DNS services in the Firefox browser.

After just over a year in the market, and with more than 100,000 users, CIRA Canadian Shield serves more than 500 million queries each day, protecting the privacy and security of individuals and families across Canada.

Key facts

• CIRA Canadian Shield will roll out to one per cent of Canadian Firefox users on July 20, gradually reaching 100 per cent of Canadian Firefox users in late September 2021.
• The Private feed of CIRA Canadian Shield (DNS privacy with no malware blocking) will be the default resolver for Canadian Firefox users. Firefox users may switch to the Protected or Family feed by changing their default settings.
• Polling data commissioned by CIRA indicates that 84 per cent of Canadians are at least somewhat concerned that businesses willingly share users' personal data with third parties without consent.
• Since launch, CIRA Canadian Shield has experienced 100 per cent uptime, and its Protected feed has blocked approximately one malicious domain per user every day, protecting them from cyber-attacks.

• CIRA Canadian Shield is built on a combination of public and private threat feeds, including those from our partners: Akamai, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
• To confirm CIRA's commitment to privacy for its users, Deloitte LLP conducted a full privacy audit of CIRA Canadian Shield. The audit found that "CIRA Canadian Shield service is suitably designed to support the achievement of CIRA's privacy commitments." Read the auditor's report summary.

Executive quotes

"Protecting the privacy of Canadians is a key element of restoring trust on the internet. Our goal is to cover as many Canadians as possible with Canadian Shield, and that means finding like-minded partners who share our values. We are proud to be the first Canadian participant in the Trusted Recursive Resolver (TRR) Program and are always seeking out new ways to extend the reach of Canadian Shield to enhance the privacy of Canadians."

• Byron Holland, president and CEO, CIRA
  

"Unencrypted DNS is a major privacy issue and part of the legacy of the old, insecure, Internet. We're very excited to be able to partner with CIRA to help fix that for our Canadian users and protect more of their browsing history by default."

• Eric Rescorla, CTO, Firefox
  

Additional resources

• Learn how to configure CIRA Canadian Shield in Firefox.
• Learn how to configure CIRA Canadian Shield in your browser or operating system.
• Download the app on the iOS App Store or Google Play Store.
• Read about CIRA's commitment to privacy.

About CIRA

CIRA (The Canadian Internet Registration Authority) manages the .CA top-level domain on behalf of all Canadians. CIRA also develops technologies and services?such as CIRA DNS Firewall and CIRA Canadian Shield?that help support its goal of building a trusted internet for Canadians. CIRA team operates one of the fastest-growing country code top-level domains (ccTLD), a high-performance global DNS network, and one of the world's most advanced back-end registry solutions.

Media contact

Spencer Callaghan
Senior manager, Brand & Communications, CIRA
[email protected]
(613) 316-2397