Benefits of using web application firewalls
Cyber-attacks are advancing every day. They don’t stop, and unfortunately, they don’t go away.
Traditional firewalls can go some way to protect your systems and networks; however, they often struggle to protect multi-tier web applications.
Instead, you will require an application security system that can do more than open and close ports.
This is where the benefits of web application firewalls come in.
This is where SonicWALL firewalls come in.
Integrated externally to your network, web application firewalls (WAFs) detect all suspicious network traffic, filtering out anything that could be malicious to your network. Providing you with advanced web security tools to protect you against numerous cyber threats.
(For some of the most advanced firewalls around, check our firewall page for details and further information.)
In this post, we look at the main benefits of using WAFs and why they should be an integral part of your network security policy.
Web Application Firewall Benefits
It can be overwhelming when you start to delve into what you can and must do to protect your site and networks from cyber-attacks.
For many businesses dealing with large amounts of data and sensitive information, WAFs can be essential in providing the highest level of security protection.
WAFs, take a traditional firewall one step further, providing an additional layer of protection against cyber threats as the software/hardware continuously works to shore up weaknesses in your web applications.
Denying access when a threat is detected, identifying anomalies, and providing in-depth reporting to your security teams, allowing you to remain in control.
And this is one of the major benefits of using web application firewalls - its ability to analyse and intercept all HTTP requests before they reach web applications.
Providing you with an in-depth strategy to ensure full protection of your web applications, WAFs can run in private, public, or cloud environments, meaning numerous benefits can be achieved from the outset.
Firewall WAF benefits
Can provide temporary patching
If you have a bug or a flaw in an application, WAFs will continue to block bad requests and provide you with the element of time, as a temporary patch is applied until you integrate a long-term fix into your network.
Sees through the camouflage
For all web data is encrypted (or it should be), hackers are using HTTPS as a camouflage to get through detection barriers. However, because SonicWall firewalls and, in particular, web application firewalls place themselves between the public and the web applications, they can quickly and effectively terminate the encrypted connection while continuing to analyse the traffic coming through.
Prevents identity theft
WAFs prevent identity theft by analysing user information and behaviour (they look at online interactions, communication, etc.). From here, the WAF will then identify the tools that are in play, those that are causing parameter tampering commands and blocking these as appropriate.
Prevents cross-site scripting
Attacks on your network can sometimes attach malicious codes to a legitimate website causing an XSS attack. Here, hackers place fake links that, when clicked on, take users to another disguised, fake site. A site that allows hackers to gather user information and login details.
The web application firewall benefits in these situations come in the form of real-time monitoring.
Scanning URLs, HTML body, and other elements for all vulnerabilities, web application firewalls detect, block, and report/delete any suspicious scripts that it comes across.
Keeps you compliant
All businesses have a duty to remain compliant and abide by regulations and guidelines relating to the collection of customer information and holding data.
Firewalls help keep you compliant while also allowing security teams to focus on other security areas.
Quick Fire Benefits
- Supports online threat management
- Analyses online behaviour
- Detects anomalies in web applications
- Protects against vulnerabilities with temporary patching
- Defends against the latest cyber attacks
- Boosts performance
- Enables caching to speed up application delivery
- And so much more.
SonicWALL Firewalls
At SonicWALL, we provide traditional and web application firewalls to protect your business 24/7 from malicious cyber-attacks.
Preventing attacks such as SQL injections, XSS attacks, and DDOS attacks, web application firewalls are a great long-term investment.
Safeguarding information and data, you can have confidence in our trusted systems and experienced teams.
With the right firewall, you can analyse traffic to your site, highlight any suspicious activity, and block and report this as required.
Call 0330 1340 230 or email us today at enquiries@sonicwall-sales.com to find out more and for an initial discussion.
Read related article: Sonicwall vs. Fortinet
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