CIRA Canadian Shield | Free public DNS for Canadians

Building a trusted internet for all Canadians.

CIRA Canadian Shield is free for all Canadians as part of our non-profit mandate.

Router configuration

All compatible devices

Browser extension

Set up guide for Android (non-app)

Download Android app

Download iOS app

Simple cybersecurity for all Canadians

CIRA Canadian Shield is a public DNS resolver, which means it connects you to the websites you're trying to visit. When we do that, we also double-check to see if they're malicious, and if we know they are, we'll stop you from visiting them.

In addition to malware and phishing, we also block sites with a high likelihood of being fraudulent or online scams.

A public DNS service with cybersecurity

CIRA Canadian Shield protects you with the same threat feed data that powers our CIRA DNS Firewall, which is used by organizations across Canada, serving over 3 million users.

We bring in dozens of threat feeds and add powerful AI from Akamai to analyze billions of DNS queries globally every single day. This detects over 100,000 new threats daily to help keep you safe online!

When we say free, we really mean it

Some companies take personal data as payment for “giving” you a free service. They use it for advertising, tracking, and reselling to others.

CIRA is a Canadian not-for-profit that has been routing and connecting Canadians to the internet for more than 20 years—without selling your data. CIRA Canadian Shield doesn’t cost you money or privacy.

Safety and privacy that doesn’t compromise speed

Our speeds are comparable to some of the biggest names in the world because our servers are exclusively in well-connected Canadian data centres.

While we may not always be the fastest, security takes time, and we think a millisecond or two is worth the guarantee of keeping your data truly private and in Canada.