Akamai recently added enhancements to its App & API Protector (AAP) product which included features like improved protection against DDoS attacks with short-burst windows, as well as better detection and mitigation of highly distributed attacks. Darshant Bhagat, Senior Director of Product Management at Akamai, joined us to deep dive into these new enhancements to better protect customers.

Highlights of the episode:

AI/ML, App security, and API security

• App and API security are critical for modern enterprises, with API security being a newer attack surface area.
• App & API Protector offers comprehensive API security solutions, including protection against OWASP Top 10 exploits and bot management.

DDoS protection, Bot detection, and PCI compliance enhancements

• Bhagat highlights enhancements to DDoS protection, including better detection and mitigation of short-burst, highly distributed attacks.
• Bhagat talks about AAP’s core offering of reducing false positives in bot detection, enabling customers to better manage foundational nuisance bots.
• AAP enhances its product, CPC, to provide client-side protection and compliance for PCI DSS, helping customers meet auditing requirements and increase confidence in app security.

Evolving security threats and solutions for apps and APIs

• Akamai has simplified onboarding and added advanced security features, including self-service options and expanded access to experts.
• Attacks on APIs and apps have evolved to become more sophisticated and frequent, with abuse of third-party components exposing new vulnerabilities.

App and API security, including emerging threats and solutions

• Bhagat highlights the importance of protecting applications and APIs in various environments, targeting security operations personnel as the primary user.
• Developers and security teams must collaborate to improve app and API security through automation, standardization, and real-time feedback.
• Bhagat points out the importance of API security for emerging workloads, including generative AI, and how Akamai’s threat research team provides robust solutions backed by human intelligence and data.
• Bhagat emphasizes the significance of leveraging data science expertise and threat research expertise to develop effective ML models for API security, and how Akamai’s data-driven approach sets it apart from competitors.

App and API security and its cultural impact

• Security is shifting left in development pipelines, with culture becoming more collaborative and enabling innovation.
• Bhagat and Bhartiya agree that security has now evolved as an enabler to give developers more freedom to innovate without worrying about security.

Guest: Darshant Bhagat (LinkedIn)
Company: Akamai (Twitter)
Show: Let’s Talk