Cloudflare introduces Project Safekeeping to provide zero trust security

Cloudflare, Inc., a security, performance, and reliability company that is helping to build a better Internet, has announced a new Impact Initiative to provide Zero Trust security to small and medium critical infrastructure organizations around the world at no cost. Project Safekeeping is a new program that aims to protect under-resourced organizations that provide a critical community benefit but are vulnerable to cyberattacks, with initial efforts focused in Australia, Germany, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

“We know cyberattacks are on the rise and that critical infrastructure is a common target. But we know that when governments buckle down on security, that often means the largest institutions are protected, at the expense of small communities,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO, Cloudflare.

“Given the success we’ve had with our critical infrastructure program in the United States, we’re excited to bring it to more countries around the world. Cloudflare is the only company ensuring that Zero Trust is accessible to the smaller infrastructure organizations that are most vulnerable, and most relied upon in their communities – the local health clinics, energy providers, or local utilities that keep communities running.”

Government resources are typically allocated to the largest and most visible critical infrastructure, such as massive financial institutions, hospital networks, oil pipelines, and airports. Small organizations that serve as the foundation of communities, such as the neighborhood health clinic, water treatment facility, and local energy provider, are also vulnerable and often reliant on external support, grants, and volunteers. Cloudflare’s Project Safekeeping will expand on the Critical Infrastructure Defense Program, which was established in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to protect US infrastructure. Cloudflare will now expand its global support to include Australia, Germany, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

Small Organizations Need Equal Access to Zero Trust 

Eligible entities in these regions will receive free enterprise-level Zero Trust cybersecurity services as well as world-class application security products such as DDOS protection and Web Application Firewall (WAF). Now, critical infrastructure entities in jeopardy can embark on their Zero Trust journey and:

• Connect users to applications: Real-time verification of every user to every application protects internal resources and defends against potential data breaches.
• Filter traffic: A secure web gateway (SWG) prevents cyber threats and data breaches by filtering unwanted content from web traffic, blocking unauthorized user behavior, and enforcing company security policies.
• Secure cloud applications: A cloud access security broker, or CASB, performs several security functions for cloud-hosted services (e.g. SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS applications). Standard CASBs secure confidential data through access control and data loss prevention, reveal shadow IT, and ensure compliance with data privacy regulations.
• Protect sensitive data: Data Loss Prevention (DLP) secures your organization’s most sensitive data in transit.
• Prevent phishing attacks: Area 1 preemptively blocks phishing, Business Email Compromise attacks, malware-less fraud, and other incessant attacks coming through email.

To be eligible, Project Safekeeping participants must be nonprofit entities, local government entities, and small and medium-sized private organizations whose primary focus is providing services that are vital to their communities’ health, safety and basic economic needs.