Distributed and Autonomous Deception Techniques Coming to a Federal Agency Near You


If you’re not familiar with the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Marketplace, it provides a searchable, sortable database of cloud service offerings (CSOs) that have achieved a FedRAMP designation. There are three designations available; FedRAMP Ready, FedRAMP In Process, and FedRAMP Authorized. 

The FedRAMP Ready designation indicates a third-party assessment organization (3PAO) attests to a CSO’s security capabilities, and a Readiness Assessment Report has been reviewed and deemed acceptable by the FedRAMP Program Management Office (PMO). The Readiness Assessment Report documents the cloud service provider’s (CSP’s) system information, compliance with federal mandates, and capability to meet FedRAMP security requirements. 

Federal agencies and CSPs are encouraged to use the Marketplace as a resource to find cloud services that are pursuing or currently authorized with FedRAMP. The program ensures information systems and services used government-wide have adequate information security, and it eliminates duplication of effort while reducing risk management costs.

Guess how many cyber deception solutions are currently listed on the FedRAMP Marketplace. If you guessed only one, you’re right!

The only cyber deception solution listed on the FedRAMP Marketplace is Acalvio’s Autonomous Deception platform ShadowPlex for Amazon Web Services (AWS).

That’s a pretty big deal, and in many ways, validates deception as an effective means for detecting and responding to advanced threats. 

Acalvio’s ShadowPlex enables organizations to detect, investigate and respond to malicious activity inside the perimeter. Their solutions are anchored on innovations in Distributed Deception and Artificial Intelligence (AI), enabling security teams to cut through the cycle of endless alerts and accelerate threat detection by focusing on high fidelity detections, all while minimizing the incidence of potential false positives. 

The ShadowPlex patented architecture allows distributed and autonomous deployment of effective deception, with minimal IT overhead across on-premises and cloud workloads and remote user machines. A comprehensive and extensible deception palette covers both IT and OT environments and reduces attacker dwell time by detecting malicious activity with precision and speed.

Solutions authorized at the FedRAMP Moderate Impact Level protect the government’s sensitive unclassified data in cloud environments, including data where the loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability would result in serious adverse effects on a Federal agency’s operations, assets, or individuals. 

“Acalvio ShadowPlex provides an effective and differentiated solution to detect and respond to advanced threats, even zero-day attacks,” said Ram Varadarajan, co-Founder & CEO at Acalvio Technologies. “US Government Departments and Agencies need Active Defense solutions in place today to be ready for the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks facing our Nation. By achieving the FedRAMP Ready designation, Acalvio has demonstrated they are a valued partner for entities who wish to defend against cyber threats today.”

Acalvio ShadowPlex reduces attacker dwell time by early detection of advanced threats and increases SOC efficiency by sophisticated investigation and active threat-hunting capabilities. Partner integrations allow ShadowPlex to leverage a customer’s security ecosystem for rapid and comprehensive threat containment. The Silicon Valley-based company is led by an experienced team with a track record of innovation and market leadership and backed by marquee investors. If you’d like more information, you can visit www.acalvio.com.


Steven Bowcut is an award-winning journalist covering cyber and physical security. He is an editor and writer for Brilliance Security Magazine as well as other security and non-security online publications. Follow and connect with Steve on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.