Web application firewalls (WAFs) protect web applications against zero-day attacks, malware infections, impersonation and other known threats and vulnerabilities. WAFs analyze data packets using filter layers, application profiling, artificial intelligence analysis and custom rules to detect suspicious traffic and traffic patterns.
WAFs can be deployed both physically and online, self-managed or managed by their provider; some even allow users to configure networking policies directly within them.
Threat detection
Web application firewalls (WAFs) are security solutions that filter traffic before it reaches business’s web applications, protecting against threats such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection and other attacks that exploit vulnerabilities at the application layer of OSI model. WAFs also assist businesses in protecting data loss prevention efforts as well as compliance regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA and PCI-DSS regulations.
These systems employ positive and negative security models to prevent malicious activity on a network. Using signatures and machine learning, they can mitigate known attack patterns like port scanning and malware infections while blocking unknown attacks and vulnerabilities – including zero-day exploits.
Web application firewalls (WAF) operate at Layer 7, unlike network firewalls that only examine network layer attributes such as IP addresses and browser validation, to prevent false alarms and ensure genuine site visitors gain unrestricted access to sites. MSPs looking for comprehensive protection for their clients should consider providing their clients with WAF-as-a-Service from StackPath’s WAF-as-a-Service which uses whitelisting/blacklisting techniques as well as DDoS protection as part of its WAF-as-a-Service option from MSPs looking to provide their clients with comprehensive protection – just one solution among many alternatives
DDoS rate limits
Rate limits are an essential tool in DDoS mitigation services provided by web application firewall services. Many attacks use mass amounts of data sent simultaneously in an attempt to saturate servers, making traditional DDoS mitigation systems difficult or impossible to detect them. Many attacks use requests which appear harmless such as failed login attempts or brute force attacks on usernames and passwords that make these attacks particularly hard to combat as they come from various locations simultaneously.
DDoS attacks that caused companies to go offline for eight hours of service were stopped thanks to a web application firewall with rate-limiting features. Such services provide this level of protection at the edge of their networks and are offered by various providers; one such provider is AppTrana; this managed WAF comes equipped with content acceleration and CDN capabilities as well as monitoring incoming traffic and detecting vulnerabilities within web applications.
Bot management
Web application firewall services that provide robust bot management can protect websites against harmful or unwanted robots that pose potential performance and security threats to websites, such as overloading servers or stealing information that can then be used for illicit purposes such as phishing users, scraping content or planning cyber attacks.
To combat this issue, these services detect the unique identifiers of bots and mark them as either human or not. Furthermore, these services use heuristic scanning technology to detect SQL injections and other threats; in addition they have capabilities of blocking Layer 7 DDoS attacks.
The top web application firewall services offer both DDoS protection and WAF functionality in one system, making compliance simpler while decreasing management complexity. One such cloud-based solution that offers this is Akamai Kona Site Defender which includes DDoS and web application firewall features in one package to reduce both cost and complexity associated with managing hardware on-site.
Global point of presence
PoPs (points of presence) are physical locations where networks or communication devices connect. PoPs form the backbone of our ability to use the Internet; these points house routers, switches, and other interface equipment that allow data to move across networks quickly and reliably. Their proximity is essential in maintaining speedy and secure internet connections.
WAFs can be deployed in various configurations, from software running on an appliance to SaaS solutions in the cloud. Some can even be installed locally as virtual or hybrid infrastructure solutions with AI that refines detection rules based on behavioral patterns to minimize false positives and allow genuine users unrestricted access.
Some leading web application firewalls combine DDoS mitigation and WAF capabilities into one product, like Akamai Kona Site Defender. This product also comes equipped with an optimized content delivery network and comes as a managed service – this CDN helps speed website performance while decreasing latency; additionally it comes equipped with an Indusface managed core rule set that has been optimized through security assessments of thousands of websites.