New capabilities extend the reach of F5 Distributed Cloud Services for
easy to deploy SaaS-based security
DUBAI,
UAE. June 13, 2022 – F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) has
announced enhancements to F5 Distributed Cloud Services to help customers
safeguard and deliver the digital experiences that have become vital to
everyday life in the ways we interact, seek out entertainment, and purchase
goods and services.
Introduced earlier
this year, F5 Distributed Cloud Services provide a SaaS-based, platform-driven
approach to secure the essential elements of connected experiences through a
comprehensive set of web, mobile app, and API protections. Today’s announcement
expands these capabilities with new solutions that support additional
platforms, defend against common attacks, and provide customers with more control
over modern application architectures.
“Many
organizations have found that by adding or expanding digital services for
users, they may have inadvertently increased the attack surface for any number
of emerging threats,” said Haiyan Song, EVP and GM, Security & Distributed
Cloud Product Group, F5. “Accordingly, companies are prioritizing security
solutions that can help them extend compelling capabilities—and competitive
differentiation to delight their customers—without sacrificing security and privacy.
F5 remains focused on providing a growing portfolio of security solutions to
safeguard even the most diverse application ecosystems.”
As
organizations enhance the digital services provided to users and pursue a wider
breadth of infrastructure models to improve performance and reduce costs,
application service environments have become more complex.
Two
such related trends have been the rise in companies’ reliance on APIs and
multi-cloud environments to support applications, with F5’s 2022 State of Application
Strategy Report finding that 78% of
organizations are currently focused on API security measures, and over
three-quarters of respondents reporting that they now run applications in
multiple clouds.
To
be effective in today’s dynamic security landscape and support adaptive applications,
vendors must provide solutions that reduce operational complexity and offer a
set of controls that is constantly evolving, both through the use of
sophisticated AI/ML technologies and the rapid introduction of new services
(such as connecting bot protection to popular CDNs, application delivery
controllers, and e-commerce and application platforms). F5’s approach to
comprehensive security is further strengthened through technology partnerships and
ecosystem integrations.
Security
enhancements to F5 Distributed Cloud Services include:
- Distributed Cloud
Bot Defense Connector for BIG-IP – With continuing
integration efforts stemming from the Shape Security acquisition,
Distributed Cloud Bot Defense capabilities have been added to F5’s
flagship platform, both as a native module in current BIG-IP version 17
software and via an iApp for
previous versions. Distributed Cloud
Bot Defense collects rich client-side signals,
transmits this telemetry to its data system, uses AI to detect bot
retooling, and immediately deploys rule updates for real-time detection to
help organizations stay ahead of attackers.
- Distributed Cloud
Bot Defense Connector for Salesforce Commerce Cloud – Increasing
the reach of its security solutions to further support popular e-commerce
platforms, F5 has natively integrated Distributed Cloud Bot
Defense for Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC). This solution, which can be
downloaded here, uses
AI and machine learning to identify, block, and redirect fraudulent
traffic in real time, protecting against account takeover, credential
stuffing, web scraping, checkout abuse, denial of inventory, and other
attacks.
- Distributed Cloud
Client-Side Defense – F5 offers a free product to
address the growing risks of third-party digital supply chain attacks.
This self-service mitigation solution provides signature-based Magecart detection
and alerts by maintaining details related to previous attacks, enabling
organizations to immediately block otherwise damaging threats with one
simple click. The solution also now features simplified onboarding and
satisfies the new PCI DSS 4.0
requirement (6.4.3 and 11).
- Distributed Cloud
DNS –
F5 is building on the expansive scale and performance of its Distributed Cloud
Platform and Global Network to
offer a fast, secure DNS solution that can be deployed either as a primary
or secondary DNS for failover purposes. This offering—available for free
and paid plans—provides DNS services closer to the point of interaction
across F5’s global network to ensure that websites and applications can be
delivered more quickly and reliably. Distributed Cloud DNS is secure by
default by virtue of being hosted on the network of F5 global points of
presence (PoPs).
- Rate Limiting for
API Endpoints – Like any other modern application
component, APIs can be subject to broad-scale attacks that overwhelm their
ability to communicate and transmit data. And the rapid adoption of APIs
across today’s application architectures has made them an attractive
attack vector. With Distributed Cloud
API Security, new rate limiting capabilities are
applied across API endpoints to help throttle high volume traffic,
ensuring legitimate connections can be successfully completed while
increasing the security and resilience of applications overall.
“No
one security vendor can do it all, but some are clearly leading the pack,”
said Chris Steffen, Managing Research Director, Enterprise Management
Associates. “F5’s innovation and expertise combine its new SaaS-based
portfolio through F5 Distributed Cloud Services,
a substantial install base across
the Fortune 500, and valuable threat intelligence through F5
Labs to offer an ecosystem-based approach
aimed at protecting any application and API, anywhere, from hackers and bots.”
Availability
Unless
otherwise noted, all solutions mentioned in this announcement are currently
available. F5 Distributed Cloud DNS will be available later this month. Please
contact F5 Sales for
additional product and service availability information. F5’s security
portfolio will also be featured at Infosecurity Europe from
21-23 June.