Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company renowned for empowering and safeguarding online experiences, announces the debut of Akamai Shield NS53. This product is designed to safeguard on-premises (on-prem) Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure from resource exhaustion attacks, which overwhelm servers to the point of rendering them unable to respond to legitimate DNS queries.
Akamai Shield NS53 supplements Akamai Edge DNS, a comprehensive cloud-based DNS solution, and Akamai Prolexic, the leading distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection platform for Layer 3 and Layer 4 attacks.
In recent years, there has been a significant surge in the number and scale of DDoS attacks on DNS infrastructure. Akamai’s mitigation efforts reveal that over 60% of the DDoS attacks tackled in the fourth quarter of 2023 had a DNS component, underscoring the critical importance of safeguarding DNS infrastructure for digital security leaders.
“Akamai recognizes the security challenges faced by our customers and our partners in a rapidly evolving threat landscape, and we focus on offering robust DDoS protection for all key entry points to their digital infrastructure, whether on-prem, in cloud, or hybrid,” said Sean Lyons, SVP and GM of Infrastructure Security at Akamai. “Organizations are looking for a better way to manage the increasing volume of DNS/DDoS attacks they face every year. With the launch of Shield NS53, customers can rest assured their servers will have no downtime, and they can instead focus on business operations.”
With Akamai processing more than 11 trillion DNS requests daily, it’s observed that roughly 40% of DNS queries for the top 50 financial services customers are illegitimate NXDOMAIN queries, commonly known as DNS resource exhaustion attacks. To address this threat, security leaders can swiftly deploy Akamai Shield NS53 to shield their on-prem and hybrid DNS infrastructure.
This solution offers several benefits:
- Acting as a protective barrier, intercepting illegitimate DNS queries at the edge of Akamai’s network while efficiently responding to legitimate queries. This enhances security, availability, and performance.
- Enabling proactive customization of DNS security policies through self-configuration via the Akamai Control Center or APIs, providing customers with real-time control over policy adjustments.
- Enhancing the performance and return on investment (ROI) of existing DNS infrastructure by serving as a bidirectional proxy service, reducing latency, and enhancing user experience. Additionally, Shield NS53 optimizes the total cost of ownership and ROI of customers’ investments in their current on-prem or hybrid DNS infrastructure.
Akamai leverages its extensive global partner network and profound expertise in on-premises enterprise infrastructure security to facilitate the onboarding of Akamai Shield NS53. The solution is immediately available through strategic partners like Carahsoft in North America and other authorized partners worldwide. Organizations can explore the Akamai Partner Directory to locate a partner in their region or reach out for assistance.
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