Web security is often based on assumptions. On the one hand, we assume that we will never fall victim to a data breach, that our applications and services running in the cloud are perfectly safe, and that there is no possibility of data compromise. On the other hand, there is also the correct assumption that something will happen, that the attack vector is broader and more obvious to hackers than you think, and that it is not if you experience a breach, but when. It is easy to assume that there is no risk, since it requires no modification or action. It is certainly much more difficult to assume that there will be attacks. That's why Amazon's web service known as WAF, or Web Application Firewall, is such a valuable offering. Designed to protect web applications, AWS WAF is a cloud firewall that can be customized to meet the needs of an organization, which means you can add and customize security policies for the applications you need to protect. at the required level You can configure your own managed rules yourself or use the default managed rules defined by Amazon Web Services (AWS). This means that for any business you can manage risks in a clear and understandable way. There's no guesswork: With any application, you can decide which rules to implement to protect against common attacks. An example of this has to do with the typical traffic patterns that occur when an attempted breach occurs. You can implement a security policy related to SQL injection or cross-site scripting. AWS WAF will look for these patterns and block violation attempts. In essence, WAF allows you to control exactly how and why traffic reaches your applications in the first place. You can then govern the rules about what happens when data reaches the app based on company biases about endpoint security or compliance rules. WAF works with Amazon services such as Amazon CloudFront, EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), and Application Load Balancer. It can also be implemented as part of an API or application programming interface. If you implement WAF as part of an API, it works with Amazon API Gateway.
AWS WAF benefits
One of the main advantages of using WAF is that you only pay for the rules you use and only when traffic occurs. If a web application does not contain financial information and is intended solely for, for example, managing high scores in a game, and does not track any user account information, you can choose to implement fewer rules and pay less. If it's a cloud database that also stores credit card and insurance information, you can implement more security rules. There are also no startup or monthly fees, no setup fees, or setup fees. You can implement rules for a single application that requires minimal protection against a breach, or implement rules for hundreds of applications that need the strongest security available. Above all, the costs are also based on the traffic requests received by the web application. Unlike a firewall that you build yourself for a data center or server room, or that protects applications running internally on a company's desktops, WAF only monitors traffic entering your applications and you only pay for it. traffic you actually receive. For an incredibly popular application with high traffic, the costs could be higher depending on the rules you implement and your security needs, but they would be much lower for a new application or one that is not designed for a large user base. Another important benefit of using AWS WAF in the cloud is that it has little to no impact on the actual web traffic of your applications. Because of the way the service inspects traffic on the fly and monitors the security rules you select, it can remain "agile" in terms of not interfering with the flow of data to and from your business applications. A final benefit is that implementing WAF is not a complex undertaking where you have to build IT infrastructure, install firewall hardware and software, or continually manage security on your own on-site servers to keep up with the changing security landscape. As new vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities emerge, the service can adapt and check for unusual traffic flows and introduce new rules to implement as part of your application security. All of this leads to the typical cloud computing benefits of cost savings (of not building your own infrastructure), flexibility (customizing how it works with your web applications and the rules you need to implement), and scaling (to meet the needs of an application that has suddenly become more popular or is more trusted by your organization).