Launching your dream website on the best web hosting server is just the beginning, but the real challenge is keeping it safe from rigid cyberattacks. As technology is evolving continuously, bad actors are always looking for weaknesses to exploit. Here’s where a web application firewall turns out to be worthwhile. It acts like a watchful guardian that analyzes traffic, spots suspicious activities, and blocks them by making sure that your website data is secure from attacks.
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Whatever your goal, if you’re planning to move website free of vulnerabilities or host your eCommerce store on the best PHP hosting server, effectively integrating a web application firewall can add an invisible armor to your website. But how does it identify and block malicious threats and why is it a must-have in today’s modern cybersecurity? Let’s find out.
Web Application Firewalls (WAF): What are They and Why Do They Matter?
Web Application Firewall (WAF) secures your website or web app by identifying, regulating, and stopping harmful HTTP/S traffic before it reaches the website or application. In other words, it operates as a protective layer between your website and the internet and prevents malicious requests from reaching your website.
Understanding WAF Policies
A definition of policy would be the established rules through which Web Application Firewalls (WAF) operate. The policies aim to protect the application against its vulnerabilities when attempted by filtering out malicious traffic. The efficiency of the WAF is also dependent on how its performance smoothly adjusts to new policies.
How do web application firewalls protect websites?
- As an application layer, i.e., Layer 7 security measures in the OSI model, Web Application Firewalls safeguard websites and applications from harmful traffic.
- When a Web Application Firewall is deployed before a website, it creates a defensive barrier between the internet and your website.
- The major benefit of using WAF is that it works separately from the website or application, but can efficiently adapt to the continuously changing application behavior.
- Before reaching the server, the client’s requests are scrutinized through the WAF to prevent unauthorized access to the server.
- Web Application Firewalls can operate at different security levels, ranging from low to high, to provide effective protection against a variety of cyber threats.
Web Application Firewall Benefits
There are a number of hackers out there ready to exploit vulnerabilities. XSS and SQL Injection attacks are the most common attacks and can be prevented with the help of Web Application Firewalls. The WAF’s purpose is to protect your web page from such malicious attacks. The WAF is always monitoring incoming potential attacks and block such attacks if found in any way to be malicious.
WAF: A Look At Different Types
- Network-Based Web Application Firewalls
These are mostly hardware-based firewalls and help by lowering the latency by using an on-premise setup. These types of firewalls are mostly expensive and need storage and continuous maintenance of physical devices.
- Host-Based Web Application Firewalls
These firewalls can be completely integrated into an application’s software that operate as modules for a web server. Hosting-based WAFs are cheaper solutions as compared to hardware-based WAFs, which are used for small websites and web applications. Consumption of local server resources is one of the disadvantages of a host-based WAF, because of which the performance may degrade.
- Cloud-Based Web Application Firewalls
These are affordable WAFs and need to manage fewer resources. When the priority is achieving outstanding performance and flexibility, a cloud-based WAF is the ultimate choice. An unlimited hardware pool can be made available, but the total cost can increase over time.
WAF vs. Traditional Firewalls: Key Differences
| Feature | Web Application Firewall | Traditional Firewall |
Secures Websites and Apps | Yes | No |
Prevents SQL Injection and XSS attacks | Yes | No |
Continuously Monitors HTTP/HTTPS Traffic | Yes | No |
Secures Network Perimeter | No | Yes |
Cyber Threats Prevented by Web Application Firewalls
- DDoS Attack: An attack aimed at flooding a particular web application/website/server with fake traffic.
- Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Attacks: These attacks target users trying to access vulnerable web applications or websites to gain access and control over their browsers.
- SQL Injection Attacks: Users inject malicious SQL queries from the user input box in web applications being used by the user.
- Man-in-the-Middle Attacks: are perpetrated by attackers standing in between the application and the rightful users to steal sensitive information.
- Zero-Day Attacks: are unique attacks launched, whereas organizations become aware of vulnerabilities in the hardware or software only when the attack takes place.
Conclusion
As digital environments get more and more advanced with time, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) would stand as an intelligent protection for all cyber threats that seem to come up on websites. Protection is not all that a WAF does-it integrates an even operation with regulatory compliance benefits and tranquility. A business website or one running applications on some of the best web hosting servers can also increase its security posture using a WAF against all kinds of attack vectors that develop with time. If you are planning to launch your website, then setting up a WAF from the first step is a strategic move towards an adaptive online presence. Security today does not come as an option but as a necessity. Is your website still protected?
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