US-based cybersecurity startup SOC Prime, which was founded by Ukrainians, appealed to DDoS protection providers Akamai, Cloudflare, AWS and others to stop providing their services to websites in Russia and Belarus. Akamai and Cloudflare have since confirmed they will not be pulling out from Russia.
Akamai said it is no longer advertising in Russia and Belarus and it ended relationships with state-controlled clients in both countries.
But, it “made the deliberate decision” to maintain its “network presence in Russia,” the company said in a statement Monday. The company argued that would allow Russians to access “vital and accurate information.”
In his appeal, SOC Prime’s Vlad Garaschenko said: “Continuing to provide access to these defensive measures, these companies have tacitly chosen a side and should address their rationale for supporting Russia in the face of tight sanctions and strong signals from the majority of industry peers that have chosen to do the right thing.”
In a statement made on Sunday, Cloudflare’s CEO Matthew Prince said his company was aware of the calls to terminate business with Russia. But after discussing the issue with private-sector and government experts, his company concluded: “Russia needs more internet, not less.”
Prince further argued that terminating Cloudflare’s services in Russia “would do little to harm the Russian government,” deny ordinary Russians access to credible information from the rest of the world, and make Russians protesting the invasion more vulnerable.
