Akamai Raises the Bar for Web Security with Enhancements to Kona Site Defender

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- RSA(®) Conference 2013 (Booth #1630) - Akamai(® )Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading cloud platform for delivering secure, high-performing user experiences to any device, anywhere, today unveiled several feature upgrades to the company's Kona Site Defender web security solution. The enhancements are designed to add greater intelligence, flexibility and simplicity to the defense of web site and application attacks, giving businesses the tools to help organizations of all types better protect web sites and applications from an ever changing threat landscape.

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Included in the new version of Kona Site Defender are upgraded Web Application Firewall (WAF) capabilities and network layer controls, new user validation capabilities and improved configuration and automation tools that speed both initial deployment and response time to changing attacks. Further, Akamai has developed Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and other modifications to Kona Site Defender. These are designed to make the technology easier to use by Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP) as well as to facilitate tighter integration with existing on-premises security technology.

Kona Site Defender is an always-on cloud-based web security solution designed to protect an enterprise's most critical online business functions against attacks that can result in millions of dollars in lost transactions and business productivity each year, and even greater harm to brand value and reputation. Using the Akamai Intelligent Platform((TM)) as its foundation, the solution offers highly flexible and scalable protection - that does not negatively impact performance - to customers against a variety of attack vectors including DDoS, as well as web application attacks such as SQL injection, Cross Site Scripting and others.

Enhancements to Kona Site Defender include:

    --  Akamai Common Rules:  In addition to the baseline WAF security offered
        by the OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set (CRS), organizations can now
        benefit from the extended security offered by the newly introduced
        Akamai Common Rules set. Each time the Akamai threat intelligence team
        experiences a new attack tool or a new version of an existing attack
        tool used against the platform, the company develops a rule to counter
        the attack. These rules are uniquely available to Akamai customers. To
        date, Akamai has developed and implemented rules to counter attacks such
        as LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) and HOIC (High Orbit Ion Cannon), among
        others.
    --  New Rate Control Capabilities: To help determine if anomalous traffic is
        being generated by users accessing the Internet from behind a proxy
        server and if that traffic is legitimate or malicious, Kona Site
        Defender features upgraded rate control capabilities. For example, IP
        addresses that might previously have been flagged as being the source of
        malicious content based on request volume can now easily be identified
        as a web proxy. This increased security intelligence is designed to
        enable customers to make better decisions about which traffic to block
        and which traffic to let through to their sites or web applications.
        Improved protection against slow-moving DDoS attack vectors better
        allows customers to fight "resource starvation" attacks that bring down
        sites and applications by tying up CPU power versus simply flooding with
        massive traffic levels.
    --  User Validation Capabilities: New to Kona Site Defender, the user
        validation module provides a way to better understand who or what is
        generating traffic aimed at your web site or web application. If traffic
        is identified as potentially malicious, the browser is redirected to a
        JavaScript confirmation page. If the browser passes, the client request
        is further processed.  The user validation module helps reduce an
        enterprise's exposure to machine-based attacks.
    --  Cloud Security Intelligence: The massive scale of the Akamai Intelligent
        Platform gives the company tremendous visibility into emerging attack
        vectors and other malicious activity that can negatively impact
        organizations doing business online. The intelligence derived from the
        processing and analysis of aggregated security data is designed to make
        Akamai services simpler, more automated and more efficient.
    --  Site Assessment and WAF Rule Update Services: To help identify potential
        site vulnerabilities and develop appropriate web security strategies,
        organizations can now engage with Akamai security experts for web site
        scanning and analysis. This one time professional services engagement is
        intended to provide customers with a deeper understanding of potential
        exposure to attack and options for mitigating risk. In addition,
        customers now can work with Akamai's professional services organization
        for ongoing WAF rules updating and tuning.
    --  APIs and MSSP Flexibility: Understanding that customers may wish to use
        Kona Site Defender in conjunction with existing on-premises appliances
        or through relationships with MSSPs, Akamai is developing APIs and other
        modifications intended to ease integration with these environments. The
        APIs will enable on-premises security controls to tightly integrate with
        the DDoS mitigation functionalities delivered by Kona Site Defender. The
        ability for MSSPs to include Kona Site Defender in their portfolio of
        supported technology gives customers greater choice in how they deploy
        and take the best advantage of the solution according to their unique
        requirements.

"The threat landscape is constantly evolving and web security professionals need a solution that can keep pace with the array of challenges they face every day," explained John Summers, vice president, Security Business, Akamai. "Customers that have deployed Kona Site Defender have been able to deal effectively with these new adversaries, new tools and new attacks. Mitigating the Operation Ababil attacks that began in September 2012 is just one example of our success."

Kona Site Defender is part of the Akamai Kona Security Solutions family. Akamai customers across industries are using Kona Security Solutions to better protect their valuable web sites and web applications by extending the security perimeter outside the data-center and to provide protection from the increasing frequency, scale and sophistication of web attacks. To date, 27 of the Fortune 100, 37 of the Internet Retailer 100 (including 10 of the top 20) and 27 of the Mobile 100 use Kona Security Solutions to protect their online businesses.

For more information about Kona Security Solutions please visit http://www.akamai.com/html/solutions/kona-solutions.html.

About Akamai
Akamai(®) is the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere. At the core of the Company's solutions is the Akamai Intelligent Platform(TM) providing extensive reach, coupled with unmatched reliability, security, visibility and expertise. Akamai removes the complexities of connecting the increasingly mobile world, supporting 24/7 consumer demand, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud. To learn more about how Akamai is accelerating the pace of innovation in a hyperconnected world, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
This release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, failure of Akamai services to operate as expected or to address intended market needs, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in Akamai's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

    Contacts:
    Rob Morton         Natalie Temple
    Media Relations    Investor Relations
    617-444-3641        617-444-3635
    rmorton@akamai.com ntemple@akamai.com

SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.