Threat Intelligence in Practice

Chapter 4. Case Study: Akamai Technologies

Getting a detailed case study of how well-run organizations use threat intelligence is challenging, because many organizations do not want to give away their “secret sauce,” especially if it might open them up to attack. This chapter will provide an overview of the ways in which Akamai Technologies defines and uses threat intelligence to protect not only their organization and employees, but their customers as well. This chapter will help the reader understand how Akamai defines threat intelligence, how they have structured their team, sources of their data collection, and some of their frustrations.

Akamai was selected for this case study because they are well-known and respected in the industry, and they have one of the most sophisticated threat intelligence teams out there. The author of this book has no affiliation with Akamai.

Akamai may not be a household name to most Internet users, but the organizations that rely on Akamai absolutely are. Founded in 1998, Akamai is the world’s largest and most trusted cloud delivery platform. Akamai helps some of the world’s largest websites distribute traffic to ensure that no single web server is overloaded, that content is served from the closest location possible, and Akamai can even help to distribute regionally specific content.

Akamai also offers Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) prevention services. Using its massive infrastructure, Akamai can help to prevent even the largest DDoS attack. ...