Protect your brand: investing in a Web Application Firewall pays off

Protect your brand: investing in a Web Application Firewall pays off

Prolonged DDoS attacks are back. The number of new ransomware families is increasing drastically, and the amount of malware is rising. Unfortunately, we must jump to the conclusion that websites are attacked even more in various and multiple ways these days.

This sounds critical. But if you act in the right way in when accounting such a situation, many threats can be averted. However, there are still many companies that take too much of a wait-and-see attitude.

A few reasons for this could be:

- Many companies are not aware of the consequences of a hack;
- Companies do not know how they can protect their web application;
- Underestimate the threats of an attack.

Time for action
Our advice: do not wait and act now. The consequences of a hacked website are enormous. Consider for example the financial damage, but also the fact that sensitive information will be available for everyone. This can cost millions after the introduction of the GDPR. In addition, it can also have huge consequences for your brand's reputation. If your website shows content that you do not want to be associated with, such as pornographic or IS-related messages, then it can have negative impact. Brand experience of a customer is based on senses, interactions, images and impressions. When a customer has a negative association, it is difficult to reverse it into a positive association. Keep in mind that negative feelings are often better remembered than positive ones.

So, what to do?
It is important to take the right technical measures to protect your digital platform against attacks. Invest in a good Web Application Firewall (WAF). This investment will fade into insignificance compared with the damage to your brand. A WAF is cloud-based intelligent protection of your website or application. A WAF is placed in front of your regular firewall, so that you are much better protected against known and unknown threats.

A reliable company to set this up is Akamai. The advantage of an Akamai WAF is that it can secure different hosting locations, such as websites hosted in the cloud from Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure. This while the management of the WAF is at a location. This saves enormously in the management burden.

Because the management of the WAF happens at one location, the logging (that takes place at the transaction level) of different locations also enters at one place. This way your website or application also meets the new GDPR rules.

Want to know more?

We can advise from knowledge and experience during the implementation of WAF, in collaboration with Akamai. Learn more about this topic? Check our dedicated Performance Cloud website or contact our consultant Hosting & Security Bas Greevink.

Published on: January 15, 2018