How Web Security Protects Websites and Web Applications
Web security protects websites, web applications, and underlying servers from cyberattacks. It uses monitoring tools, user training, and other strategies to keep data, infrastructure, and staff safe from malicious threats and unauthorized access.
Threats to Website and Web Applications
Threats range from defacing a business’ website to stealing sensitive information or disrupting services, all of which can damage a company’s reputation, lead to revenue loss, and cause long-term harm. Often, these attacks originate on the web and can be launched by attackers located anywhere in the world.
To combat these risks, web security solutions include a combination of firewall inspection, traffic monitoring, antimalware, sandboxing, URL filtering, and other tools. These solutions provide visibility and control of website and application traffic, preventing malware infections, policy violations, data loss, and credential theft.
Password attacks are a common web security risk that can be prevented by requiring strong authentication, which requires something the user knows (password), something the user has (security token or device), and something the user is (biometric verification). These measures ensure only authorized users have access to critical website or web application resources.
DDoS attacks are another common threat that can be mitigated by using a DDoS protection solution, which shields websites from attacks that would otherwise consume resources and slow down or degrade their performance. These solutions use cloud-based infrastructure to quickly and automatically defend sites from attack, providing businesses with the peace of mind to focus on growth.
In addition to protecting websites and web applications, these solutions also prevent threats that can expose sensitive information or lead to phishing and social engineering attacks. By encrypting communications between the website and the visitor’s browser, these solutions prevent eavesdropping on transactions, which can compromise privacy.
Keeping up with the latest web security best practices is essential for any business that relies on its website to generate leads, grow sales, or operate efficiently. These best practices often involve deploying HTTPS, regularly updating software and systems, limiting third-party integrations and plugins, and managing user accounts and passwords.
Many web security solutions are deployed in the cloud, eliminating hardware investments and installation and simplifying management. In addition, they leverage global threat intelligence to identify and block incoming attacks quickly and consistently across locations, devices, and applications. This enables organizations to scale their web security solutions to meet the needs of growing websites and increasing traffic while maintaining consistent protection across all environments and devices. This approach is increasingly preferred by organizations because of its agility and cost-efficiency. It is a major shift from the traditional model of deploying on-premise solutions to protect against web-based threats.