Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    Akamai CSO Details Cyber-Security Challenges and Improvements

    By
    Sean Michael Kerner
    -
    May 15, 2017
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Akamai Technologies operates one of the world’s largest content delivery networks (CDNs), as well as providing organizations with security services including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection and web application firewall (WAF) capabilities.

      In a video interview with eWEEK, Akamai’s Chief Security Officer Andy Ellis provides insight into security challenges old and new that face Akamai and its customers.

      One of the challenges that Akamai deals with is the increasing volume of DDoS attacks that are over 100G bps of bandwidth. Defending against large-scale DDoS requires a combination of increased bandwidth and improved mitigation techniques.

      “At the front end you always have to be able to absorb attack connections that come in,” Ellis said. “If someone is throwing a 10T-bps attack and you don’t have 10T bps of bandwidth to your front door, you are going to lose.”

      There are, however, techniques to make attacks more expensive for attackers. For Akamai’s own infrastructure, it isn’t making extensive use of virtualization to minimize DDoS attacks; rather, Ellis said Akamai flexibly load balances capacity across services.

      “When you’re moving around 30T bps of normal traffic, you have to be able to spin up capacity in one place and minimize needs in other places,” Ellis said. “We try not to do that virtually, since we run our services fairly hot in general and overhead of virtualization historically was always reasonably high.”

      While DDoS attacks remain a concern, there are other interesting attacks that Ellis has seen. Among them is an attack that occurred against an Akamai customer’s unused IP address space. Hackers hijacked the unused space and then launched attacks from the IP addresses. When complaints about the offending IP addresses were made, they came back to the original organization that actually owned the previously unused addresses.

      Providing support for internet of things (IoT) devices over an extended period of time is also seen as a growing cyber-security challenge.

      “There is a lot of concern about devices that get deployed and will remain deployed and how the companies that are responsible for managing devices persist with them over the long haul,” Ellis said.

      Watch the full video interview with Andy Ellis, chief security officer at Akamai Technologies, above.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×