Akamai Technologies Accelerates Development of Solution to Protect Websites from Magecart and Credit Card Skimming with Planned Acquisition of ChameleonX

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the intelligent edge platform for securing and delivering digital experiences, today announces that the company has entered into an agreement to acquire ChameleonX, an Israel-based company with a unique solution to protect websites from an increasingly publicized and insidious form of attack that entails credit card skimming and user credential theft via malicious or compromised third-party scripts. The intended transaction is expected to further strengthen Akamai’s industry leading security portfolio.

As a leader in cloud and enterprise security solutions, and the world’s largest distributed edge platform, Akamai has unparalleled visibility into internet threats, including emerging threat vectors. That visibility has helped Akamai threat researchers to detect and develop solutions to mitigate some of the top security threats digital businesses face today. Efforts like these make it more challenging for attackers to steal data because of the improvements in application security technology that result from the disclosures. As a result, attackers are exploiting a new path to steal data: injecting malicious code into the user’s browser. ChameleonX’s talented team and unique technical approach to this emerging problem are expected to accelerate Akamai’s timeframe to releasing a new product offering dedicated to detecting and blocking these attacks

“Protecting websites from malicious client-side code is an area of paramount concern to customers, driven by significant, persistent and effective attack activity over the last year that has resulted in both detrimental incidents of data loss and fines,” said Craig Adams, senior vice president and general manager of Akamai’s security and performance business units. “Customers are looking to a trusted brand like Akamai to address this problem with a reliable and scalable solution that will better fortify their web properties and protect their users.”

“Injecting malicious code into the user’s browser via third parties evades typical detection and mitigation technology because those solutions run either on the web server, or as a proxy between the website owner and the end user - there are no controls in the browser running on the user’s device,” said Maor Hod, CEO and co-founder, ChameleonX. “ChameleonX technology detects this type of attack in its early phases and stops it before significant damage is done to the individual or the business.”

The acquisition of the ChameleonX team and technology align with Akamai’s organic product development and global threat research to deliver a solution that detects and blocks active attacks without limiting the use of website technologies or impacting the customer experience. The company has been recognized by Gartner as a Leader in the 2019 Magic Quadrant for Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) for the third year in a row. Akamai was cited as a Leader in The Forrester New Wave™: Bot Management, Q3 2018 evaluation and cited as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Web Application Firewalls, Q2 2018 evaluation. Akamai was also cited as a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: Zero Trust eXtended Ecosystem Providers, Q4 2018 evaluation, which stated: “Akamai is a powerhouse in the network security space and has spent both time and resources in extending its capabilities into other areas of security for clients. This includes DDoS, botnet mitigation, malware protection, and application microsegmentation capabilities”.

ChameleonX, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, is a privately funded company. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019; Akamai anticipates no material impact to the company’s financial results for 2019 or 2020.

The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about expected revenue and other benefits to Akamai from the acquisition. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, inability to successfully integrate the personnel of ChameleonX, failure to achieve expected post-closing financial results, and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.