The Importance of Web Security

Today’s users connect to the Internet to communicate, collaborate, work, play, and perform financial and business tasks. As a result, tons of data and sensitive information are constantly exchanged over the web. And while great strides have been made in cloud and mobility technology to deliver new levels of ease and flexibility, these advancements also create a much bigger attack surface for cybercriminals. That’s why it’s more important than ever to have effective web security.

Modern browsers already have several features to protect users’ security on the Internet, but these need to be activated and correctly configured for full protection. Web security functions, which are positioned between an organization’s endpoints and the Internet, inspect traffic and requests at the application layer for malicious content or actions that violate corporate policy. They can block access to known bad URLs used in phishing attacks or as entry points for malware, and enable bandwidth limitations.

Security shouldn’t be an afterthought during the development process. All team members should be well-trained on web security best practices so that vulnerabilities don’t go undetected. Vulnerability identification should happen early in the deployment cycle so that security can be tested and implemented before the website goes live.

Many of the most common cyber attacks target web applications. For example, Cross Site Scripting (XSS) allows attackers to inject code in the form of HTML markup such as script>, embed>, and object> tags, or in POST or GET request parameters, cookies, user-uploaded files, and so on. These attacks exploit unvalidated input to run scripts on the server or open vulnerabilities in the remote system. Web security tools should sanitize all incoming data to ensure that only valid input is processed by the application.

Another frequent threat is a data breach. When sensitive data is exposed, it can put the company at a competitive disadvantage or lead to identity theft and other forms of fraud. Web security solutions should prevent attackers from accessing unauthorized data by encrypting transmissions and requiring two-factor authentication for logins.

Keeping software up to date is also crucial for web security. Many cyberattacks exploit out-of-date web servers or applications. Web security solutions should monitor for out-of-date versions and automatically deploy updates to mitigate these risks. They should also monitor for suspicious activity such as failed login attempts or a sudden increase in login attempts from unknown devices. This can help detect malicious activity and stop it before it causes any damage. In addition, they should be able to quickly identify and block malicious redirections. And finally, they should limit the number of unsuccessful login attempts that can be made before locking a user out of the system completely. This will prevent the need to waste time and resources trying to recover lost passwords or unlock systems.