The New Boardroom Mandate: Building Barriers to Limit Cyber Impact

Attack Surface Management , Governance & Risk Management , Identity & Access Management The New Boardroom Mandate: Building Barriers to Limit Cyber Impact Akamai's Mani Sundaram on AI, Microsegmentation and Cyber Resilience Tom Field (SecurityEditor) • June 11, 2026     16 Minutes    Credit Eligible Get Permission Audio Player 00:00 00:00 Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. Mani Sundaram, executive vice president and general manager, Akamai Security Technology Group As artificial intelligence accelerates cyberthreats and expands the attack surface, organizations are moving from preventing breaches to limiting their impact through microsegmentation, said Mani Sundaram, executive vice president and general manager, Akamai Security Technology Group. He said the rise of agentic AI and machine identities has rendered traditional perimeters increasingly ineffective, making internal controls essential to stopping attackers from moving laterally once they gain access. Boards are increasingly focused on resilience, asking how to contain and survive breaches rather than simply prevent them. "The boardroom conversations have changed," Sundaram said. "They're looking at, how do we put internal barriers in place that allow good traffic, good intentions? But if there's bad intentions, how do we stop that as quickly as possible?" AI-powered segmentation can automatically discover application dependencies, generate security policies and help organizations contain ransomware at machine speed. In this audio interview with ISMG, Sundaram also discussed: How AI-powered segmentation enhances traditional rule-based approaches to stopping lateral movement and ransomware; The role of segmentation in securing AI factories, training environments and inference infrastructure; How Akamai is integrating browser security, zero trust network access and segmentation into a unified security platform. Sundaram oversees strategy and product direction for Akamai's security solutions and is responsible for the business unit's core functions of engineering, product development and product management. He also manages Akamai's internal information security organization. Through his many roles at Akamai, Sundaram has built a depth and breadth of technical knowledge and a unique understanding of its customers' needs within the fast-growing security landscape.