Highlights:

  • The company offers a range of fundamental security, fraud detection, and networking tools within a product suite named Distributed Cloud Services.
  • The cybersecurity features powered by Wib at F5 empower software teams to conduct vulnerability scans on a newly developed API before it is released into production.

A new suite of software tools from F5 Inc. is intended to help businesses manage and secure their technology infrastructure more effectively.

F5, listed on Nasdaq, is a prominent cybersecurity provider, disclosing a revenue of USD 693 million in the last quarter. The company’s applications enable enterprises to thwart bots, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and various other threats. Additionally, F5 offers fraud detection software and tools designed for organizations to oversee their network infrastructure and the corresponding data traffic effectively.

The company offers a range of fundamental security, fraud detection, and networking tools bundled in a product suite named Distributed Cloud Services. In its latest update, F5 is broadening the capabilities of the product suite by incorporating new features designed to safeguard application programming interfaces from cyberattacks.

An application’s API allows external workloads to access the data it holds and, in certain instances, modify its configuration. Consequently, APIs become a central target in hacking campaigns. The security functionalities recently introduced by F5 are crafted to diminish the risks associated with these cyberattacks.

The latest enhancements leverage technology acquired by F5 through its recent purchase of Wib Security Ltd., an API security provider based in Tel Aviv. The startup, established in 2022, had garnered over USD 15 million from investors before being acquired.

F5’s cybersecurity features, powered by Wib, empower software teams to scrutinize a recently developed API for vulnerabilities before its production deployment. The software can identify whether an API possesses the necessary controls to prevent unauthorized data requests. Additionally, it can detect various issues, including situations where the information provided in response to a data request lacks sufficient encryption.

The technology acquired by F5 through the Wib acquisition is applicable for securing APIs after their deployment in production. The software identifies “shadow APIs,” which may have been overlooked and lack protection from a company’s cybersecurity measures. Furthermore, Wib’s technology actively monitors malicious activities and provides recommendations for mitigating detected cyberattacks.

François Locoh-Donou, Chief Executive of F5, said, “Companies already face daunting complexity and a rapidly changing threat landscape. The added pressure to secure and deliver AI services compounds this, putting many security and IT teams in an untenable position. We are delivering new capabilities that ensure our customers are ready for AI, making it significantly easier for them to protect and power every app, every API, everywhere.”

The company’s second new product, a software platform named AI Data Fabric, made its debut recently. It compiles the telemetry about customers’ technology environments gathered by other F5 software products. The company claims that the platform powers a new artificial intelligence chatbot with the help of that collected telemetry.

Using natural language queries, the chatbot enables administrators to request details regarding the configuration of a technology environment. It can also present information on possible technical problems and visualize that data to simplify troubleshooting. According to F5, the AI also comes up with suggestions for fixing the issues it discovers.

The chatbot’s launch is scheduled for later this year and is just one of several new offerings the company intends to support through the recently introduced AI Data Fabric. The telemetry collected by this platform from various sources, including the Distributed Cloud Services suite, is part of the data collection process for F5’s newly introduced API security features in that product line.