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What is Shape Security?

What is Shape Security? You heard the news that F5 acquired Shape Security, but what is Shape Security? Shape defends against malicious automation targeted at web and mobile applications.   Why...
Updated Mar 30, 2023
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Shape Security
Jim_Downey's avatar
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I've joined F5 Networks through F5's acquisition of Shape Security. I lead a team team that provides engineering escalation support to Shape's amazing Customer Success organization. We strive to delight customers, make integrations easier and easier, and stay ahead of attackers.
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Jim_Downey's avatar
Icon for Employee rankEmployee
I've joined F5 Networks through F5's acquisition of Shape Security. I lead a team team that provides engineering escalation support to Shape's amazing Customer Success organization. We strive to delight customers, make integrations easier and easier, and stay ahead of attackers.
View Profile
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Jim_Downey
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May 06, 2020

Good question. Signal is a rather overloaded term and deserves more of an explanation. In the Shape system, a signal represents data collected by Shape's JavaScript (or mobile SDK) about the browser (or mobile) environment or user behavior. Signals collected about the browser environment might include typical items such as fonts and plugins. Signals about user behavior might include mouse movements, copying and pasting, and key presses (though not which alphanumeric keys were pressed). I mention these as examples so that you can picture the type of data Shape considers as signals. In practice, Shape has developed hundreds of signals and continues to develop new ones as it researches browser releases and attack tools, always striving for the best balance between security efficacy and performance.