News

F5 enhances SaaS solution portfolio

F5 has announced the addition of new SaaS products to its application security portfolio. Device ID and Shape Recognise use data and analytics capabilities to streamline customer experiences by removing login friction for users.

The new offerings can be combined with F5’s multi-cloud application security offerings, with bot mitigation and anti-fraud capabilities helping to protect organisations and individuals from sophisticated threats.

“APIs play an essential role in unlocking and extending the reach of digital experiences for organisations in every industry sector—a scenario that, unfortunately, also constitutes a larger attack surface for hackers,” explained Haiyan Song, EVP of security at F5. “Accordingly, we believe that the new epicenter for cybersecurity is around applications and APIs, and that the most significant challenge for security professionals is to safeguard an ever-growing number of digital experiences. To help today’s customers succeed, security must be native to applications and APIs, continuous, applied in real time, and powered by data and AI.”

The new solutions follow on from the acquisition of Shape Security, which was completed in January 2020. Device ID is a real-time, high-precision device identifier that helps customers better understand the devices interacting with websites and mobile apps. The solution uses advanced signal collection and proven machine learning algorithms to assign a unique identifier to each device based on its browser, OS, hardware, and network attributes. Shape Recognise builds on the capabilities of Device ID with insights around login history, environment, and integrity across the network to further enhance the consumer experience and remove authentication friction.

Both solutions complement F5’s Shape AI Fraud Engine (SAFE), which was launched in October 2020. SAFE uses a closed-loop machine learning approach to detect and block fraud in real time. The product identifies and stops account takeover, malicious account origination, exploitation of stolen accounts, and other fraudulent activities.

F5 partners in the UK include Arrow, Bytes Technology Group, CDW, Computacenter and Westcon and WWT.