Web Security and How it Can Help Your Business

As people and businesses rely more and more on web applications for everything from managing their finances to communicating with colleagues, the security of those applications becomes an increasingly important issue. Web security refers to a set of technologies that work together to ensure strong protection for website content, connections between a web application and browsers, and data transport over the internet.

Threat actors target websites to steal information, disrupt services, or make money through ransomware, malware, phishing, or other attack vectors. Web security tools can prevent these attacks by identifying vulnerabilities, blocking malicious traffic, and responding to an incident once it occurs.

Preventing attacks starts with implementing preventative measures such as installing regular security patches, keeping up to date on software updates, and enabling automatic backups of site content. These simple actions can help thwart the majority of hacking attempts without any extra hardware or IT staff resources. Successful web security also relies on integrating tools into existing workflows and providing a flexible, scalable model that can adapt to changing threats.

Many web security solutions provide functions that stop attacks before they can happen, including WAFs that scan incoming traffic and identify suspicious patterns. These tools block or redirect malicious traffic based on predetermined rules, eliminating the need for complex and costly hardware infrastructure or IT administration resources. Some web security tools also incorporate antivirus features that can detect known malware samples based on signatures and remove them from an organization’s website to protect employees, customers, and partners from infection.

Another common source of web security issues are weaknesses in the code used to build a web application. This type of vulnerability allows attackers to inject code that looks like normal code, bypassing authorization mechanisms and exposing sensitive information. Examples of this type of web security issue include SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).

Web application firewalls (WAFs) can help prevent code injection attacks by analyzing incoming requests and evaluating the integrity of data. They can restrict the locations from which scripts, stylesheets, and other resources can be loaded, minimizing the attack surface for vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting (XSS). Many WAFs also integrate with Content Security Policies (CSPs) that allow administrators to control where scripts and styles are loaded on a website to minimize the risk of exploitable code execution.

Finally, web security solutions often include features that protect against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by detecting unusual traffic patterns and blocking or diverting malicious attacks. DDoS protection features can protect against attacks that use bots to flood websites with bogus requests, potentially disrupting service and stealing valuable data.

It’s important to note that no matter how robust your preventative measures are, there will always be some risk of an attack compromising your website. That’s why it’s crucial to have a plan in place for responding quickly when an incident does occur. This should include a clear process for identifying and addressing any vulnerabilities or issues, a detailed report to share with your team after the incident, and an ongoing effort to protect your web applications against new vulnerabilities.