Akamai introduces Guardicore Platform to combat rising ransomware attacks

Akamai Technologies, the cloud company that powers and protects life online, has launched the Akamai Guardicore Platform, the first-ever security platform to bring together industry-leading Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and microsegmentation. The platform is a powerful weapon in the fight against increasingly aggressive ransomware groups, offering broad and granular control over security measures through one console.

Recent trends indicate a sharp escalation in the tactics and techniques employed by ransomware collectives. According to an Akamai report, the uncontrolled exploitation of zero-day and one-day vulnerabilities resulted in a shocking 143% surge in victims between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023. Traditional security tools are ineffective in keeping pace with these evolving threats, putting the onus on organisations to adopt Zero Trust strategies and deploy next-gen security measures like Akamai's Guardicore Platform.

Pavel Gurvich, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Security at Akamai, stated that the Akamai Guardicore Platform was built considering the increasing pressures faced by security teams trying to manage stringent compliance standards and mounting ransomware threats while also consolidating vendors and managing budgets. "As organisations are adopting Zero Trust, they are looking for simplified experiences that offer broad visibility and granular controls for all assets and access policies. Security professionals can deploy the Akamai Guardicore Platform as a single console to consolidate agents and implement Zero Trust principles across varied infrastructures," Gurvich explained.

The Akamai Guardicore Platform provides an integrated suite of security capabilities, including microsegmentation, ZTNA, multi-factor authentication, a DNS firewall, and threat hunting. The platform is designed to enforce Zero Trust principles both on-premise and in the cloud, and to secure workforces wherever they are based. Furthermore, the platform's modular flexibility allows organisations to employ exactly the modules they need, ensuring readiness to add more capabilities when required.

A standout feature of the Akamai Guardicore Platform is its use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to simplify user experience, vulnerability assessments, compliance, and incident response. The platform's AI assistant allows security professionals to ask natural language questions about their network instead of manually scanning through logs, significantly expediting tasks like compliance scoping and incident response. Additionally, the platform uses AI to simplify network labelling, examining asset behaviours and suggesting labels with a confidence score and explanation. This drastically reduces the traditionally difficult and time-consuming task of network labelling.

With the increasing adoption of Zero Trust frameworks, platforms like the Akamai Guardicore are instrumental in helping organisations stay ahead of security threats and maintain robust, flexible security postures. The future of cybersecurity rests in sophisticated, AI-powered tools such as these, that combine powerful security measures with streamlined workflows and a user-friendly interface.