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Application security - protection against the OWASP top 10 security risks

The proportion of data leaks due to a lack of application security rose by 52 % in 2019, and the trend is rising. Web applications and mobile applications are particularly vulnerable to attacks. Added to this are the APIs - the application programming interfaces. DDoS attacks on web applications or APIs can cripple business processes and completely paralyze the company or authority. Modern application security software and tools protect web-based application infrastructures from cyberattacks.

Large organizations actively use more than 100 web applications and mobile apps. However, web-based applications are also becoming more important in small to medium-sized companies. This makes application security programs that protect web-based application structures from cyberattacks all the more important.

Who neglects application security, risks a lot

Cybercriminals use methods to deliberately exploit possible weaknesses in the web application software. Classic IT security systems such as network firewalls or intrusion prevention systems are not able to detect such attacks. Simple network firewalls can only block or allow certain TCP or UDP ports. Application-level attacks using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/HTTPS) are not detected and therefore cannot be proactively blocked. In addition, even next-generation firewalls are not sufficient. They usually do not act as reverse proxies and therefore cannot identify and prevent all attacks that are specifically targeted at applications. They are not able to analyze encrypted data packets and block potential threats. Application security testing identifies security gaps in the web application.

Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) for effective application security

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) for application security protects IT systems in companies and public authorities. It is an important application security tool. The WAF analyzes the data exchange between clients and web servers and checks all incoming requests and responses to and from the web server. If the WAF classifies certain contents as suspicious, access via the WAF is prevented. In particular, a WAF offers protection against attacks that are carried out by so-called injection attacks (SQL-Injections), Cross Site Scripting (XSS), Session Hijacking and other web attacks.

A WAF in combination with a network firewall significantly increases the application security of your company. This means that you are up to date with the latest application security standards when it comes to the requirements of a modern and resilient IT infrastructure. With decades of development and practical experience, the web application firewall effectively protects the corporate network against widespread attacks such as zero-day exploits, SQL injections, cross site scripting or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks at the application level. The use of WAF as an application security program worthwhile for large, small and medium-sized companies.