Introducing Malware Protection for Scanning File Uploads

The OWASP Foundation recently highlighted a critical vulnerability in a function that we use every day: file uploads. In the last few years, people and organizations have come to rely on file uploads to validate information and complete transactions such as:

• Proof of vaccination for employment or other purposes
• Photographs of auto damage and repair as part of insurance claims
• Tax returns, proof of identity, and mortgage for loan applications
• Customer images for product reviews on retail sites
• Medical insurance cards and records data for healthcare coverage
• Resumes for job applications

Problem-solve at the edge, not on your server

In response, Akamai Malware Protection brings a preventative solution to web apps and APIs, protecting them from malicious file uploads by scanning file uploads at the edge. Even if you have a scanner, chances are that you’re already storing the file upload (even temporarily) on your systems, which still poses a significant risk to those systems becoming infected with malware. 

Malware Protection not only scans your files before they are uploaded, but also is capable of scanning so rapidly that you’ll barely notice it happening. 

The benefits of a modern approach to file upload protection

There’s only good news here: Malware Protection can save you time and money while making your customers feel safer than ever before. This is because Malware Protection: 

• Detects and blocks malware at the edge. Avoid the risks of scanning on your servers, where the malware could have already spread by the time it’s scanned.
• Avoids complexity and frees up your team’s time. Scan files only once, rather than setting up protection in each system individually like you need to do with ICAP and agent-based scanners.
• Positions your security posture for growth. By choosing a preventative and layered approach, you can scale your protection as your business grows, giving you extra protection at the edge, even if you also want to scan again at origin.
• Requires no changes to your applications. You do not have to configure or change application code. Malware Protection is hosted completely on the Akamai Intelligent Edge Platform. 

Fast scan times, easy deployment

Malware Protection works synchronously with our web application firewall offerings to scan your files in less time than it would take to read this sentence. 

A current Malware Protection customer in a Fortune 100 financial services firm provided this feedback: "Malware Protection was easy to deploy and a low- or no-code solution. Malware Protection's response time was very fast; it was able to scan and return a response almost immediately."