Aqua Secure AI Wins AI Cybersecurity Solution of the Year

AI applications are at tremendous risk. The complex chain of different components that AI applications depend on to truly push the boundaries of innovation is also what dramatically increases their attack surface, leaving them vulnerable to attackers.

We introduced Aqua Secure AI to protect AI applications where they live: in containers. And now we’re proud to share that our first-of-its-kind solution has been recognized as Cybersecurity Solution of the Year for Artificial Intelligence in the prestigious 2025 CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards.
So what sets Aqua Secure AI apart from other solutions on the market? To answer that, it’s important to first understand what makes AI so difficult to secure in the first place.

The widening gap between AI security needs and traditional security tools

AI and LLMs introduce a new class of security risks into business applications that conventional cybersecurity tools don’t address. Prompt injections can be used to manipulate AI systems into performing unauthorized actions. Model leaks enable attackers to extract sensitive training data. Shadow AI deployments threaten security governance and oversight.

As a result, many security teams are struggling to keep up with the pace of AI adoption. The creation of the AI category in the CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards in recent years is a reflection of that reality, an acknowledgment that there is a gap between what security teams need to manage AI effectively and the tools available to them today.

But while AI and LLMs introduce a new category of security risks, the underlying principles of securing AI workloads aren’t as foreign. AI applications and the infrastructure surrounding them live in containers and are orchestrated by Kubernetes. That means AI security is inseparable from container security. So while AI may actively amplify container security risks, effective AI security still starts with comprehensive container security.

“Aqua Secure AI delivers full lifecycle security tailored for the modern stack, empowering organizations to innovate with GenAI while staying in control”

Steve Johansson, Managing Director
CyberSecurity Breakthrough

Aqua Secure AI: Bringing world-class runtime protection to AI workloads

Securing containers is what Aqua was built on. It is where we started, what we do and has been our focus for over 10 years. And we have industry accolades that show it, including recognition in the Cloud Security category for previous CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards.

Our background in container security is what gives us the unique expertise to secure AI workloads and infrastructure against this new category of threats and vulnerabilities. Using a patent-pending method of container interception, Aqua observes both the application layer and the underlying operating system, providing security teams with deep insight into how AI models are used and what data they interact with.

At runtime, where AI workloads are at the greatest risk, Secure AI analyzes the actual prompt inputs to identify LLM-based attacks. The combination of prompt-level defense and agent-led runtime protection enables Aqua to detect and block high-risk behaviors, like prompt injections and jailbreaks, before they escalate. These capabilities are key to closing a critical gap in the AI security stack left by other solutions, which may only handle one part of the equation, whether it’s looking at prompts at the edge or securing SDKs.

Beyond runtime threat detection and enforcement, Aqua also provides comprehensive AI discovery and governance capabilities, giving security teams:

• Full visibility into AI usage, so they can see which AI models, platforms and versions are being used across SaaS and managed AI workloads
• Strict AI policy enforcement, with OWASP-aligned assurance policies and the ability to enforce guardrails without developer friction
• A single integrated platform that correlates insights from build, deploy and runtime into an organization-wide view of AI risks

This combination of unique capabilities, available in one cohesive platform and without requiring any code changes or SDKs, is what makes Aqua Secure AI an enterprise-ready security solution for containerized AI workloads. And that’s precisely why CyberSecurity Breakthrough recognized Secure AI as Cybersecurity Solution of the Year for Artificial Intelligence.

With Aqua Security, organizations can finally keep pace with the velocity of innovation. In a space cluttered with outdated tools and narrow use cases, Aqua stands out with a unified, intelligent, and deeply embedded approach to securing the future of AI and cloud-native development.”

Steve Johansson, Managing Director
CyberSecurity Breakthrough

Building the future of security

Aqua has been a leader in container security since its inception in 2015, and this recognition not only validates our continued leadership but also highlights the amazing innovation our team brings to the industry. As we evolved from container security to cloud native security, AI workload protection was a natural extension of the strengths of the Aqua Platform.

As we move forward, we’ll continue to explore new opportunities for securing cloud native applications, from code to cloud to prompt.