Introducing Akamai DNS Posture Management

We built DNS Posture Management to give you one central view across all your different providers, whether it is Akamai Edge DNS, AWS Route 53, Azure DNS, Infoblox, Google Cloud DNS, or one of the many other DNS solutions that you might have somewhere in your infrastructure.

This unified, single pane of glass view has been virtually impossible until now. Although most DNS solutions provide dashboards and analytics, they only reflect the data from their own platform.

Visibility remains fragmented for organizations that use multiple DNS providers — requiring logins to each system and manual correlation across the information silos. On top of that, the built-in analytics and monitoring capabilities often leave a lot to be desired.

Every digital interaction begins with DNS, yet this critical infrastructure remains one of the most fragmented and poorly maintained aspects of IT. In many organizations DNS management is spread across multiple teams with inconsistent policies, outdated configurations, and minimal security oversight. What should be a foundation of digital security is often its greatest vulnerability.

At Akamai, we understand these challenges. For more than two decades, we’ve been at the forefront of DNS innovation and security. Our authoritative DNS service handles trillions of queries each month for some of the world's largest organizations and this unparalleled scale gives us unique visibility into DNS traffic patterns and emerging cybersecurity threats across the global internet.

The consequences of poor DNS hygiene can be devastating: increased exposure to cyberattacks, service outages, data breaches revealing sensitive data, and brand reputation damage. Our new DNS Posture Management solution is designed specifically to address these critical vulnerabilities and simplify DNS security for enterprises of all sizes.

What if Akamai could make DNS security easier? This is the question that drove our team of DNS experts. What if we could eliminate the complexity, fragmentation, and neglect that plague DNS management. What if we could provide a single, unified view of your entire DNS estate with continuous security validation?

That’s exactly what we’ve achieved with our DNS Posture Management solution. We’ve created a comprehensive solution that brings clarity to DNS chaos while providing robust, business-critical security at scale.

Our DNS Posture Management solution is built on three fundamental tenets that address the challenges of fragmented infrastructure: visibility, observability, and actionability. This powerful framework transforms how organizations approach network security and protect against DNS attacks.

You can’t secure what you can’t see. Our solution focuses on the comprehensive discovery of your entire DNS footprint across multiple DNS providers such as Akamai Edge DNS, AWS Route 53, Microsoft Azure DNS, and many more. DNS Posture Management discovers and maps your entire DNS infrastructure, including:

• Authoritative DNS servers and configurations (primary and secondary servers)
• Internal DNS configurations
• Third-party DNS service integrations
• DNSSEC implementation status and validation
• DNS delegation chains and dependencies
• Domain registration details and expiration monitoring

Visibility is just the first step. DNS Posture Management provides automation, continuous monitoring, and deep insights into your DNS infrastructure.

• Mapping DNS assets to major compliance frameworks, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), helps ensure compliance (Figure)

• Automated policy checking continuously checks your DNS configurations against industry standards, detecting missing DMARC records, abandoned CNAMEs that create subdomain takeover risks, and improper delegations that compromise lookup security

• Intelligent anomaly detection identifies unusual changes or behavior, such as records or IP addresses that change frequently (fast flux DNS malware)

• Comprehensive risk scoring helps you understand your overall DNS security posture, such as your post-quantum compute readiness

Knowing about problems isn’t enough. Speed is critical in vulnerability detection. DNS Posture Management empowers your team to quickly resolve issues.

• Identifies misconfigurations in real time

• Prioritizes alerts based on business impact and exploitation risk

• Provides guided remediation with step-by-step instructions for resolving issues

• Integrates seamlessly with leading SIEM, SOAR, GRC, ITSM, and XDR platforms, enhancing operational efficiency and enabling a swift response to potential threats

These three tenets work together in a continuous cycle, creating a feedback loop that progressively strengthens your security posture over time.

Today's security measures are designed to address current DNS threats, but what about tomorrow's challenges? Akamai DNS Posture Management includes two forward-looking features that prepare your organization for emerging threat vectors.

The advent of quantum computing poses a significant risk to the current cryptographic standards that underpin DNS security. Cybercriminals are already harvesting encrypted DNS data with the intent to decrypt it when quantum capabilities become available — a tactic known as "harvest now, decrypt later." Our solution provides:

• Agentless discovery to assess which assets are quantum safe and which are vulnerable

• Support for workflows involving approved/unapproved post-quantum cryptography (PQC) signature algorithm

• Tools for organizations that are looking to align with evolving standards such as NIST’s PQC recommendations

DNS and certificate posture monitoring are inextricably linked, yet often managed in silos. Our comprehensive capability, Certificate Posture Management, continuously monitors and assesses digital certificates in a single solution.

• Helps prevent security risks such as expired, misconfigured, or rogue certificates.
• Detects weak keys, deprecated algorithms, and unauthorized issuances

Akamai DNS Posture Management doesn't exist in isolation. It builds upon Akamai's extensive expertise in securing critical internet infrastructure. It extends the power of Akamai's comprehensive security portfolio, complementing solutions like Akamai Edge DNS, Akamai Prolexic and Akamai Shield NS53 to deliver integrated, layered defense.

For organizations that are seeking additional support, DNS Posture Management is also available as a fully managed service, allowing teams to take advantage of Akamai's expertise without requiring dedicated internal resources. 

Akamai Managed Service for DNS Posture Management includes access to Akamai’s Security Operations Command Center, quarterly security posture reviews with actionable recommendations to ensure that detected DNS related issues are resolved, and expert advice on best practices for infrastructure security to counter emerging threats.