Introducing MDBR+: Customized Security for Government Organizations
Since it was launched in May 2020, the Malicious Domain Block and Reporting (MDBR) service has successfully helped nearly 3,000 U.S. state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) government organizations improve their security defenses against malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
Since the service was launched, it has proactively blocked 10.7 billion requests to known or suspected malicious domains, drastically reducing organizational risk and potential costs associated with malware remediation.
MDBR: an easy-to-activate, fully managed service
MDBR is available at no cost to members of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Elections Infrastructure Sharing & Analysis Center. It is delivered via a partnership between the Center for Internet Security (CIS) and Akamai.
The service is quick and simple for members to activate — all a member has to do is configure their local DNS forwarders to point to Akamai’s DNS resolver IP addresses. After that, all DNS requests are routed to Akamai, where every request is inspected and compared against Akamai’s real-time threat intelligence.
Both a high-level summary and deeper insights
Members receive a weekly report from the CIS Security Operations Center that provides a high-level summary and deeper insights into the malicious domains that have been blocked, including information on threat severity, threat types, threat confidence level, and the top domains blocked. The report also provides the context about why the threat was blocked based on what Akamai knows about that domain.
MDBR is a fully managed service, which means that every SLTT member has the same security policy, which is configured and managed by CIS security analysts and data engineers. This provides a huge amount of value for security teams, but has historically meant that members who want more customization of this service have been unable to get it.
Introducing MDBR+
Greater customization is now possible with the introduction of Malicious Domain Block and Reporting Plus (MDBR+).
MDBR+ is a new, cost-effective offering that builds on the existing capabilities of MDBR and provides SLTT organizations with a quick-to-configure and easy-to-deploy, cloud-based secure web gateway service that enables them to further reduce risk and increase their security defenses.
The benefits of MDBR+
MDBR+ provides:
A cloud-based management portal that allows security and acceptable use policies (AUPs) to be configured and managed, enabling each organization to create custom policies
Easy integration of third-party threat feeds and the ability to create custom allow or deny lists
The ability to inspect and control risky HTTP/S traffic through a cloud-based proxy
The ability to identify shadow IT applications and block or allow based on category or risk
The capability to create custom block pages that are displayed to users when a policy blocks a web request
Real-time logging and reporting that provides overviews of traffic, threat, and AUP events, allowing rapid identification and remediation of compromised devices
Protection and policy enforcement for laptops, tablets, and smartphones that are used remotely or connected to guest Wi-Fi.
We are pleased to expand our partnership with Akamai to deliver the MDBR+ service to enhance the web security of state and local government organizations.”
— Gina Chapman, Executive Vice President, Sales and Business Services at CIS
CIS + Akamai = a successful partnership
“MDBR has been hugely successful at proactively blocking threats that could have significantly impacted the ability of SLTT organizations to deliver public services,” said Patrick Sullivan, VP, CTO of Security Strategy at Akamai. “MDBR+ will allow SLLT security teams to customize their environments and policies to enable employees to work where they need to while quickly enhancing their organization’s security posture, identify compromised devices, and protect devices used off-network.”
“We are pleased to expand our partnership with Akamai to deliver the MDBR+ service to enhance the web security of state and local government organizations,” said Gina Chapman, Executive Vice President, Sales and Business Services at CIS. “MDBR+ harnesses Akamai’s extensive visibility into the global threat landscape, combined with CIS’s robust SLTT-specific threat database, and offers security teams real-time visibility and custom configuration options to increase their cybersecurity defenses.”
Available now
MDBR+ is available now to SLTT organizations. Visit the CIS website for more service information and pricing details.
To find out more about Akamai’s secure web gateway, check out Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise.
