May 2026 Summaries

AI crawlers often request web pages as HTML, which they must then strip down to plain text, a process that can be inefficient and lossy, particularly for tables and code blocks. To address this, a small JavaScript service running on Fastly Compute has been developed to serve Markdown versions of web content specifically to AI crawlers, while normal browser requests continue to receive HTML. This service, which requires about 200 lines of JavaScript, uses tools like linkedom and Defuddle for parsing and extracting content, and Turndown for converting HTML to Markdown. The approach reduces bandwidth and improves the accuracy of AI models by providing them with cleaner, more digestible content. The service includes caching to optimize repeated requests and can be customized for specific needs like link rewriting or site-specific content extraction. This transformation process respects the efficiency needs of AI crawlers and optimizes content delivery without disrupting the traditional user experience.

Deploying a Fastly Next-Gen WAF (NGWAF) Agent on-premises and configuring it for local logging can greatly aid in debugging, traffic analysis, and verifying security rules before they are implemented in a live environment. The process involves setting up the waf-data-log configuration to write request data locally, particularly in containerized deployments using environment variables. By using a Docker container, with the necessary access keys and environment settings, logs can be captured and viewed in real-time through a local netcat listener. This setup allows for immediate visibility into requests and detected threats, enabling effective troubleshooting and validation of attack detection. A practical example includes simulating an attack using a directory traversal payload to observe log output, which helps in refining security measures and enhancing application security workflows.

The evolving role of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) has led to increased accountability without corresponding control, which is becoming unsustainable as cyberattacks grow in frequency and impact. While CISOs are now more involved in business-level decisions and regulatory outcomes, they often lack ownership over the systems they are tasked to secure, leading to defensive rather than proactive measures. The misalignment between accountability and control is exacerbated by the rapid adoption of new technologies, especially AI, which expands the attack surface and increases operational complexity. This situation is compounded by unclear ownership in AI-first organizations and a lack of visibility into risks, complicating incident response. Fastly's security solutions aim to bridge this gap by providing tools that enhance visibility, reduce false positives, and streamline responses to real threats, thus aligning security efforts with organizational speed and AI adoption.

Fastly is enhancing enterprise adaptability to AI by addressing performance and security challenges through its edge platform, which processes one million requests per second for open source projects. As a member of the Agentic AI Foundation, Fastly is committed to developing protocols for agentic interactions that meet real-world production demands, focusing on MCP and secure agent sub-task execution. They have released a Fastly MCP Server to connect LLMs with edge tools, contributing to protocol evolution for efficient edge operations. This aligns with their Fast Forward program, which supports open source projects, by enabling high-performance, AI-driven operations with reduced latency and increased data sovereignty. Fastly's participation in AAIF aims to ensure agentic architectures achieve sub-millisecond execution, advocating for enterprise-grade deployments without compromising security or performance.

Fastly's Threat Insights Report examines the impact of AI, bots, and automation on the internet, revealing that nearly half of all online requests are bot-generated, with significant implications for various industries, particularly e-commerce. The report highlights the challenges and opportunities posed by both malicious and "wanted" bots, emphasizing their role in reshaping digital retail landscapes by simulating user behavior, monitoring prices, and influencing analytics. E-commerce businesses face increased pressure to invest in sophisticated bot detection and mitigation tools to protect site performance, data integrity, and accurate demand measurement. While AI-driven traffic enhances market efficiency through dynamic pricing, it also compresses margins and introduces security risks, necessitating strategic bot management. The report notes that e-commerce experiences a higher volume of "wanted" bot traffic compared to other industries, which, while valuable, can strain infrastructure and degrade site performance. The findings underscore the importance of developing comprehensive bot management strategies that balance visibility, control, monetization, and protection to navigate the evolving AI-driven landscape effectively.

Fastly and Amazon Web Services are set to host a virtual conversation with former professional soccer player Tim Howard on June 3rd, focusing on performance under pressure in contexts ranging from the FIFA World Cup to digital streaming experiences. The discussion will highlight how anticipation and preparation, rather than mere reaction, are crucial both for goalkeepers like Howard and for digital infrastructure handling real-time demands. Just as Howard emphasized positioning and decision-making in his career, digital platforms must optimize for peak performance by coordinating edge processing and scalable backend infrastructure, particularly during high-traffic events. Fastly and AWS's collaboration exemplifies this approach, ensuring that live streams and online services remain resilient and efficient even during sudden spikes in viewer activity. Participants of the event will receive a personalized Web Performance & Security Report, emphasizing the importance of upstream design in maintaining seamless user experiences.

The iGaming industry is experiencing rapid growth, particularly in live, in-play betting, which now constitutes over half of all wagers and is driving a significant transformation in platform expectations. As mobile devices dominate user interactions and global competition intensifies, especially in newly regulated markets like the United States, the iGaming market is projected to reach $170 billion by 2031. The demand for real-time bet processing, instant odds updates, and immediate feedback is reshaping user engagement, making sub-150ms responsiveness a standard. This shift necessitates advanced technological solutions to handle the complexities of dynamic, time-sensitive interactions while mitigating risks from DDoS attacks and regional regulatory compliance. Traditional CDN architectures prove inadequate for these demands, prompting a shift towards edge computing models, which bring critical functions like security and decision-making closer to the user, enhancing performance and reducing latency. Platforms such as Fastly's edge architecture enable iGaming operators to deliver real-time betting experiences with improved speed, security, and reliability, handling traffic spikes and compliance seamlessly, thus positioning them favorably for future industry advancements.

Fastly's latest Threat Insights Report, "AI, Bots, and the Agentic Future of the Web," highlights the significant impact that AI and bots have on internet traffic, revealing that nearly half of all internet requests are now bot-generated. This shift is particularly transformative for publishers who have traditionally relied on user clicks for revenue through subscriptions, advertisements, and sponsorships. AI systems are changing this dynamic by consuming content directly and providing answers without directing users back to the source, challenging the traditional publishing model. The report underscores the strategic implications of this shift, as publishers face a dilemma between allowing AI access for visibility in AI-driven experiences or restricting it to maintain audience relationships. The rise of AI fetchers, which influence content visibility in AI-generated answers, further complicates this decision. Moreover, the report notes that 99% of global bot traffic is considered "unwanted," but publishers encounter less of this due to their unique position. The challenge lies in distinguishing between beneficial and harmful bot traffic to develop a strategic approach that balances visibility, control, monetization, and protection. Fastly suggests that publishers with robust visibility and governance controls will be best equipped to navigate this evolving landscape and capitalize on potential monetization opportunities from AI platforms.

SaaS and PaaS platforms rely heavily on Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to enhance performance, security, and scalability, which are crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and market competitiveness. Fastly offers a robust CDN solution specifically designed for modern internet needs, featuring a large, strategically placed network that optimizes latency, caching, and security. Utilizing Varnish as its caching engine and exposing VCL for customization, Fastly enables SaaS/PaaS providers to extend their capabilities at the edge, offering novel features and real-time data insights. Fastly's innovative network architecture allows for rapid cache invalidation and enhanced performance through SSD-based servers and extensive RAM, while its proprietary NGWAF technology reduces false positives in security measures by using lexical analysis instead of regex. This advanced approach has garnered Fastly high praise, including the Gartner Peer Insights Security Customer Choice award for consecutive years, underscoring its effectiveness in helping high-tech companies scale, deliver superior performance, and maintain robust security.

Copy Fail (CVE-2026-31431) is a significant vulnerability affecting most major Linux distributions, exploiting a logic flaw in the Linux kernel's cryptographic subsystem that targets the Copy-on-Write (CoW) optimization, allowing attackers to gain root access by corrupting shared memory. This exploit poses a severe threat to developers using shared environments like traditional serverless platforms or container architectures, which rely on shared Linux-kernel primitives and container isolation. However, Fastly Compute is inherently resilient to this vulnerability due to its unique execution model that doesn't expose the shared page-cache primitive and prevents low-level kernel socket access. Fastly utilizes a WebAssembly (Wasm) runtime, specifically Wasmtime, which provides a sandbox with well-defined boundaries independent of the Linux kernel, eliminating entire categories of kernel vulnerabilities, including Copy Fail. The platform's architecture decisions, such as not using a shared host filesystem or arbitrary kernel sockets, ensure robust security and isolation, making it a secure option for developers concerned about such exploits. Fastly encourages developers to explore its platform, offering a new free tier and self-purchase options to experience the security benefits firsthand.