Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM) today announced that GM Sectec, a global leader in PCI-led managed security services with key operations in North America, Latin America, and Europe, has joined the Akamai Partner Connect Program. The partnership is intended to help global enterprises simplify the transition to PCI DSS v4.0.1 compliance, govern the emerging agentic digital workforce, and strengthen defenses against ransomware and API-based threats.

As organizations increasingly adopt autonomous AI agents to manage business workflows, regulators now treat these "digital employees" as human identities with no exemptions for machine-driven data access. This shift, combined with the "shadow API" crisis, by which untracked APIs are created for AI integration, has created significant visibility and security gaps in cardholder data environments (CDEs).