Firewall is very essential for overall Internet security of any organization. As the progress of technology continues to grow and new threats are evolving day by day, the necessity of Internet security increased by leaps and bound. As such, Firewall has become an essential part of every organization in today’s scenario. Web App Firewall has now been used in almost every organization, no matter whether it is big or small, old or startups firms.
Types of Web application Firewall
Firewall for web application is basically available in three broad categories:
Network based WAF – Network based WAF are generally hardware based application and as a result it reduced the latency and there are less chances for negative performance in the network based WAF. However, it is very costly as compared to other WAF available in the market. It is the most traditional approach of WAF and as such organization do not feels problem to implement it.
Application based WAF – Application based WAF are generally integrated into the application code. The main advantage of using Application based WAF is that it can enhance the performance the network and basically come with customized options. So, organization can choose Application based WAF as per their requirements. For example, ModSecurity is an open source application based WAF which can be installed on Apache software. It is one of the best applications that can take the full advantage of WAF as well as can handle the server locally. Another advantage of using Application based WAF is that it is comparatively cheaper than Network based WAF and as such it is a popular form of WAF.
Cloud hosted WAF – Cloud hosted WAF is the cheapest form of firewall but it needs a simple DNS modification in order to redirect the traffic of the application. But the good thing is that it can be deployed very easily. Moreover, you can avail Cloud hosted WAF on subscription basis. But as per as the customization and performance is considered, it is not so well as the other two WAY – Application based WAF and Network based WAF. But still there are many organization that likes to stick to it.
Some Key advantages that can save the Organization
There are various benefits of web application firewall that helps the organization in protection their assets and keeping up their reputation in the market. Some of these applications are pointed out so that the organization can be benefited from these:
Protection against various attacks – When the firewall is installed for web application, the organization can get relaxed from many tensions as the firewall can protect the organization from various types of attacks such as SQL injection, Denial of Service (DoS) attack, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attck, Brute force attack, and many other such dangerous attacks. Apart from that it also helps the organization to get protected from Cross-site scripting and application specific attacks. It provides the user with real time reporting facility. With the help of that live real-time reporting the user can easily find out what is happening on the network of the user and as such the chances of variability decreases to a great extent.
Stopping data Leakage – Firewall for web application can play a vital role in stopping the leakage of vital data from the organization. Hackers can collect the confidential and valuable information of the organization in a variety of ways. Data are very essential for every organization and a single leakage of data can lead to a huge disaster for an organization. But once you install a Web Application Firewall (WAF) the chances of getting your data leakage becomes very less as WAF scans each and every request of the user and if it gets anything unusual it do not allow to access the request.
Automated Patches – WAF also helps the organization to temporarily patch the application for providing protection to the organization. With WAF organization can run vulnerability scan at a regular interval of time. It is generally recommended to run the scanning process for several times in a month. In such case if there would be any kind of vulnerability issues then it can be fixed at the earliest as possible.
