F5 has announced new AI-driven capabilities for the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP). These updates provide organisations with advanced tools to secure sensitive data and manage AI-powered applications, including expanded capabilities in F5 AI Gateway to prevent data leaks and deliver cutting-edge AI data protection. Additionally, new functionality for F5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator is being introduced to classify and defend encrypted data in motion and block unapproved AI use.
The F5 ADSP is the industry’s most advanced solution to help organisations secure and deliver all applications, including those powered by AI, and address the complexities of hybrid multicloud infrastructures and their ever-evolving security and performance challenges. These enhancements reaffirm F5’s commitment to protecting modern, AI-driven infrastructures by enabling organisations to securely optimise, scale, and orchestrate AI applications.
Meeting modern data protection challenges
As businesses adopt AI and hybrid cloud technologies, sensitive data often moves across encrypted traffic and unapproved AI tools, creating security blind spots. Traditional security methods struggle to detect or prevent data leaks from these complex environments. F5 answers this challenge with tools that allow organisations of all sizes to achieve key compliance and security outcomes, such as:
- Detect, classify, and stop data leaks in encrypted and AI-driven traffic in real time.
- Prevent risks from unauthorised AI use (Shadow AI) and sensitive data exposure.
- Apply consistent policies across applications, APIs, and AI services to maintain security and compliance.
“The core tension in every boardroom today is the race to adopt AI versus the mandate to protect the firm’s data,” said Kunal Anand, Chief Innovation Officer at F5. “Forcing a choice between the two is a losing strategy. We’re eliminating that choice. By providing deep visibility into encrypted AI conversations, we’re giving leaders the controls to stop data leakage and govern AI use, effectively turning the CISO from a gatekeeper into the primary enabler of secure innovation.”
New features and capabilities in F5 AI Gateway
Data leakage detection and prevention capabilities are coming to F5 AI Gateway, planned for later this quarter, powered by technology F5 recently acquired from LeakSignal. This new functionality examines AI prompts and responses to spot sensitive data such as personal information and applies customer-defined policies to redact, block, or log it.
With the integration and ongoing development of this AI data protection technology, F5 expands its ability to inspect in-transit data, applying policies to secure sensitive information before it leaves the network. This addition simplifies compliance and reduces risk across hybrid and multicloud deployments.
Key new features include:
- Real-time detection of sensitive data during AI interactions.
- Policy enforcement to protect and redact sensitive data as it enters AI environments as well as protect data before it leaves approved environments.
- Detailed reports and audit logs integrated with SIEM tools.
These updates directly address risks, such as the leakage of sensitive data when using AI systems, and help organisations maintain compliance requirements.
F5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator to expand to manage AI Risks
To tackle the risks posed by Shadow AI, F5 is announcing plans to enhance BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator to offer AI data protection by delivering real-time visibility into encrypted traffic flows. This approach enables organisations to detect, classify, and block unauthorised AI use and sharing of sensitive data in-transit to maintain compliance while permitting authorised traffic and enforcing corporate-acceptable use of AI technologies. The solution will deliver unparalleled visibility into AI data flows by decrypting encrypted traffic at scale to enhance inspection with no performance loss and provide centralised dashboards and reporting for audits and investigations, with planned availability in late 2025.
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