Acalvio Deception Technology Now Operating in AWS GovCloud with FedRAMP Ready Status

Enabling a preemptive defense and early adversary detection for high-assurance federal workloads

WS GovCloud (US) hosts some of the federal government’s most sensitive workloads, including Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), ITAR-controlled data, and mission-critical systems. In this context, not all “cloud-ready” solutions are equal. Operating in AWS GovCloud with FedRAMP Ready status is more than a compliance milestone; it demonstrates that a platform meets stringent federal security controls and can integrate directly into high-assurance environments.

For U.S. Government agencies, the reality is that sophisticated adversaries, both external and internal, can operate within authorized boundaries without triggering conventional alerts. The challenge is not just managing access but detecting malicious intent with high confidence before any operational impact occurs.

Earning FedRAMP Ready status for deployment in AWS GovCloud is a significant achievement for Acalvio and for the agencies we support. It confirms that the platform meets the rigorous security and compliance standards required for hosting some of the nation’s most sensitive workloads, including Controlled Unclassified Information and mission-critical systems. Alignment with NIST 800-53 controls from the outset allows agencies to implement preemptive defense capabilities in their most trusted cloud environments without prolonged security reviews or reengineering. This milestone ensures that proven detection capabilities can be deployed where they have the greatest impact, protecting systems and data that are essential to federal missions.

Acalvio uses high-fidelity decoys, credentials, and network pathways that are indistinguishable from legitimate assets. Seamlessly integrated into the environment, these elements provide a definitive signal of malicious activity whenever they are accessed without authorization, avoiding reliance on anomaly detection models, signatures, or user behavior profiling.

In AWS GovCloud, the same architecture extends across multi-account, multi-region environments and works with AWS-native automation to initiate containment or investigation workflows in real time, ensuring that detection is immediately actionable at scale.

Deception technology changes the economics of detection in high-assurance environments. Instead of monitoring every endpoint, transaction, and user session for anomalies, deception creates high-fidelity assets that adversaries cannot distinguish from legitimate systems. These assets require no user interaction and no ongoing behavior profiling, which means they generate near-zero false positives.

In AWS GovCloud deployments, this approach provides:

• Early detection during reconnaissance, credential misuse, or lateral movement
• High-confidence alerts based on definitive unauthorized interaction
• Low operational overhead due to automation in decoy deployment, refresh, and removal
• Integration-ready telemetry that feeds directly into SIEM, SOAR, and threat hunting workflows

By placing detection points in likely attack paths rather than everywhere in the environment, deception enables defenders to identify threats faster, focus investigative resources on confirmed incidents, and reduce the noise that often overwhelms security teams.

Acalvio’s capabilities have been tested and proven in environments that reflect the operational realities of federal networks. In the U.S. Navy Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX), conducted in the National Cyber Range under assumed compromise conditions, Acalvio placed first overall. Navy assessors cited strengths in technical performance, usability, and defensive impact, underscoring the platform’s readiness for high-assurance environments.

This performance is consistent with Gartner’s recognition of Acalvio as an Innovator and Leader in Preemptive Cybersecurity. Analysts have highlighted the use of “advanced deception that looks too real to resist” and the role of such capabilities in reducing attacker decision space. Together, these independent validations provide both the operational and analytical confirmation that Acalvio’s approach can meet the demands of sensitive federal workloads.

Many solutions marketed as “cloud-ready” for government workloads cannot operate in AWS GovCloud or achieve FedRAMP authorization without significant modification. These gaps can lead to extended deployment timelines, repeated security reviews, and incomplete coverage for regulated workloads.

By contrast, Acalvio’s FedRAMP Ready status in AWS GovCloud ensures that preemptive detection capabilities can be deployed alongside sensitive workloads from the start. This allows agencies to meet both mission and compliance requirements without sacrificing speed, coverage, or operational integrity.

Operating in AWS GovCloud with FedRAMP Ready status provides agencies with a deployment model that is both compliant and operationally efficient. In practice, this means:

• Direct deployment into regulated workloads without extended Authority to Operate timelines
•  Integration with AWS-native automation for rapid and consistent incident workflows
•  Scalable coverage across multi-account and multi-region environments
•  Preservation of zero trust principles without introducing performance or operational trade-offs

These advantages enable agencies to bring preemptive detection capabilities online quickly, maintain continuous compliance, and ensure that defensive measures are effective at the scale and complexity of federal missions.

Our work with AWS GovCloud and FedRAMP Ready status is an important milestone, but it is not the end of the roadmap. We are advancing toward listing in the AWS ICMP, which will allow federal agencies to acquire and deploy Acalvio directly through established procurement channels. This step will streamline acquisition, reduce administrative overhead, and align with the way many agencies already source mission-critical cloud capabilities.

The ICMP listing is more than a procurement convenience. It represents continued alignment between Acalvio’s technology and AWS’s secure cloud ecosystem for the U.S. Government. Once complete, agencies will be able to move from decision to deployment in less time, without introducing gaps in coverage or delaying operational readiness.