Every day is more dangerous than yesterday! We say the Internet. Every day there are new methods and new hackers who are waiting for an opportunity to execute their sinister plan. One of the common ways to deal with hackers is to use a firewall. What is a firewall? You will see the answer to this question below.

But the main topic of this article is a specific type of firewalls. We want to see what Web Firewall or WAF is and learn more about it. If you agree, let’s first check the reasons for protecting the website and using this tool.

Why should we protect our website?

The answer to this question is quite clear! 64% of companies have experienced web-based attacks at least once. 62% of them have struggled with phishing and social engineering attacks, and 59% have experienced botnets and malicious codes.

When it comes to website and CMS security, the issue of increasing malicious activities on the Internet also comes up. WordPress is still at the top of the list of victims in terms of the number of attacks. On average, 30,000 to 50,000 websites are hacked every day! It is a big number. Most of these websites are owned by small businesses that inadvertently fall prey to cybercriminals.

As long as a website has a vulnerability, it will be a very attractive bait for hackers! The most common type of attack on websites is Cross-Site Scripting or XSS. Also, SQL injection and remote code execution is another favorite technique of malicious hackers.

Anyway, we are not going to stand by and let them (the bad hackers of the story) do whatever they want.

How can we protect our website from hackers?

When you leave your home or office, you lock the door! A very basic action to protect your assets and property. So you should also value your internet assets. In simple words, you should also lock your site so that hackers cannot create problems for it.

Various things are done to keep the site safe.

For example, you should constantly update your site in various ways to fix possible vulnerabilities. Backing up is more obligatory than night bread. In this way, even if the hackers succeed, you can still access your information from another place. If you read the Cyber ​​Security article, we have talked about all the ways to increase the security of the site.

You can do all of this yourself (or have a professional do it). Or you can leave these tasks to a software! Here we answered the question raised in the title! What is a website firewall or waf? The same software that takes responsibility for the security of your site.

Web firewall plays the main role of protecting the site. By creating layers of security around your site, this system makes you feel at ease about having secure defenses. We will talk more about waf later; But before that, let’s learn more about the concept of firewall.

What is a firewall?

If you want to learn the meaning of WordPress hosting, you must first know what hosting means. Here too, before defining the web firewall, you should know the meaning of the firewall itself.

In the literal translation, firewall becomes a wall of fire! A translation that is not far from reality. A firewall prevents unauthorized access like a wall of fire. A tool that takes the necessary settings, then by carefully monitoring the incoming traffic, it prevents the access of unauthorized people and IPs. Simply put, a firewall greatly reduces the possibility of being hacked. See the image above.

Firewall can be both software and hardware. The most ideal situation is formed when you use both firewalls. Both hardware and software.

It is interesting to know that the largest firewall in the world belongs to China, which is spread throughout this vast country. This firewall is known as the Great Firewall and prevents the passage of any unauthorized data. The leaders of this country decide whether it is allowed or not.

Well, after this brief explanation, let’s get to know the main topic of the article, i.e. Website Firewall or WAF.

What is Website Firewall (Application Firewall) or WAF?

WAF stands for Web Application Firewall; But what is the task of waf?

WAF monitors the traffic coming to your website and filters and blocks the part that is known to be malicious. Therefore, the task of WAFs is to prevent suspicious traffic from reaching the web server by detecting it before it reaches it. The firewall under the program and all firewalls in general are made up of different components that work together to block malicious traffic and greatly reduce the possibility of hacking.

If you agree, in the next part we want to talk about how WAFs work.

How does a website firewall or WAF work?

Website firewall is different from traditional firewalls. So that it does not block only a few IP addresses or specific ports; Rather, it takes a deeper look at incoming traffic and looks for signs of an attack or SQL injection. In addition, the website firewall is customizable. It means that WAF can be set according to the web application we use.

A WAF is a firewall for HTTP applications that implements a set of rules. Usually, these rules include common attacks such as Cross-Site Scripting or XSS and SQL injection.

To enforce these rules, two lists are defined in WAF:

White list

White list means a list of IPs and authorized ports that are allowed to pass and are not considered malicious. For example, suppose we have a form that accepts HTML codes. Placing this form in the white list will prevent false positive results for HTML/XSS injection.

black list

The black list is exactly the opposite of the white list; That is, a list of prohibited items that should not be allowed to pass through the firewall processor.

Combined method (simultaneous use of two lists)

This method is actually a combination of white and black list, which is the most widely used technique used in modern firewalls today.

Signature-based detection

Signature-based detection is more about intrusion detection than firewalls. However, many modern firewalls have the ability to look for and block certain patterns that are known to be malicious.

Why do we need a website firewall?

Your site is always at risk! Don’t forget that hackers are constantly looking for new ways to access your website; That is, even if your site is completely safe and up-to-date in terms of programming techniques and security measures, it may still not be enough. But remember that a website firewall is a highly specialized security tool designed specifically to protect web applications. Therefore, using it along with proper coding and other security measures will ensure the security of your site.

Conclusion

As you read, a web firewall will greatly reduce the chance of being harmed by hacker attacks. That is why it is almost essential to use it.