Content delivery network and cloud services provider Akamai announced on Tuesday the launch of a new product designed to protect enterprises against malware, phishing and data exfiltration attempts through the analysis of DNS requests.

The new solution, Enterprise Threat Protector, aims to address the risks associated with DNS communications. According to Akamai, the product leverages threat data from the company’s Cloud Security Intelligence system to determine the “intent” of DNS requests and detect potentially targeted attacks.

Enterprise Threat Protector analyzes an organization’s recursive DNS requests and blocks connections to domains associated with suspicious or malicious activity, including malware drop sites, ransomware, and phishing pages.

Akamai says the product can also disrupt communications between infected hosts and command and control (C&C) servers. It’s not uncommon for malware to rely on DNS for data exfiltration and Enterprise Threat Protector should prevent attempts to send data outside the protected organization.

Security teams can also utilize the new product to improve compliance and enforce acceptable use policies.

Since Enterprise Threat Protector is a cloud-based solution, it’s highly scalable and it can be configured and deployed within minutes without the need for new hardware or complex changes to the network.

"Our customers' security teams are facing adversaries that consistently shift attack tactics and vectors, specifically seek out gaps in defenses and can be incredibly persistent in attempts to find weaknesses in a company's security posture. Enterprises need quick-to-deploy and easy-to-manage cloud-based solutions that can address these unique issues as part of their overall security strategy," said John Summers, vice president and general manager of Enterprise Products at Akamai. "With Enterprise Threat Protector, we're providing our customers with a powerful, intelligent solution that can help detect and stop targeted attacks in their tracks."

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Eduard Kovacs is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

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