In the digital era, much is spoken about the criticality of web application firewalls and website security for all organizations, irrespective of their nature, scale, and size of operation. Read on to find out why.
Website Security and its Criticality to Organizations
Protect data – yours and your users’
Websites contain your data – customer lists, marketing and sales materials, financial data, accounting software, proprietary processes and so on. And you collect sensitive customer information such as medical records, PII, financial information and so on. Through website security measures like data encryption, secure storage and so on, you protect all this invaluable data. If you do not, it is a huge liability – financially, legally and reputationally. Preventing website attacks and data breaches is a matter of business continuity.
Growing threat landscape
The threat landscape was already rising at a rapid pace, and the sudden, underprepared digital shift has led to a rapid rise in the volume of attacks. With attackers leveraging advanced technology, the lethality and sophistication of attacks have increased too, costing organizations in the millions and billions. That’s why businesses need to make website security a priority.
Cleanup is more expensive than security
In the event of an unavoidable breach, proper security measures that include incident response and disaster recovery plans, you can ensure improved recovery after the breach. Recovering from data breaches and attacks is expensive, though not impossible. With robust web security, you can avoid this costly process.
Regulatory compliance
Last but not the least, implementing security best practices is mandated by regulatory frameworks and compliance standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, HITECH, FINRA, NIST, etc. Non-compliance brings mammoth fines and penalties, apart from a loss of customer trust.
Where does Web Application Firewall Feature in All This?
Next-gen, comprehensive, intuitive, and managed Web Application Firewall (WAF) like Indusface AppTrana is an important part of any effective web security. Acting as the first line of defense between the website and the incoming traffic, it enables organizations to achieve proactiveness in security. In other words, you gain the first mover advantage in patching flaws and preventing attackers from detecting them or even snooping around for them.
Importance of Web Application Firewall
Multi-layered and Comprehensive Website Firewall Protection
Unlike application scanners that only detect vulnerabilities but do not provide remediation, WAF protects against threats and helps instantly remediate flaws through virtual patching capabilities. So, until the flaw is fixed by the developers, it will be secured through website firewall protection. This is especially important for the protection of third-party services, software, components, and modules used by the web application for which source code isn’t available or the vendor is not releasing updates.
Equipped to Prevent Known and Emerging Threats
From SQL injections to DDoS to business logic flaws, next-gen web application firewalls are capable of blocking all known and emerging threats. While the known threats are blocked by default, modern WAFs allow customization of rulesets to prevent business logic flaws from being exploited by attackers. Managed WAFs leverage security analytics, Global Threat Intelligence, and attack history reports to prevent emerging threats including zero-days.
Accelerate Website Performance
Using CDN (Content Delivery Networks) and globally distributed edge locations, web application firewalls accelerate website performance. Why? The number of requests that go to the origin server are minimized since all requests for content are fulfilled by edge servers containing cached content. So, whether attackers are sending voluminous requests to cause DDoS or there are sudden traffic surges for legitimate reasons (online sale/ viral content, etc.), WAF ensures that the website is always available to legitimate users.
Blocks Illegitimate and Bad Bot Traffic
That too outside the network perimeter. Web application firewall protection provides distance between the server/ website and the incoming traffic.
Equipped with AI, real-time threat intelligence and self-learning abilities, the WAF closely monitors traffic using behavioral, pattern and signature analysis to block illegitimate requests and bad bots from gaining access to the website or its resources. They detect malicious bots, crawlers and scrapers used by attackers and/or competitors to gain an edge.
Reduce Application Risks
The best web application firewalls allow customization and configurability of policies in view of the fast-evolving threat landscape. This helps to minimize the risks facing the website and harden the security posture. WAFs also help minimize the attack surface by standing at the network edge preventing exposure of unnecessary ports and endpoints to attackers.
Real-Time Insights, Reporting and Documentation
The best part about intelligent web application firewall is that it provides real-time insights and alerts to remediate security issues. It also provides thorough reports and documents that help to better strategize security and fortify the security posture.
Conclusion
With effective website application firewall and website security, you can save millions of dollars and ensure business continuity. That’s why they are so crucial for all organizations.