The importance of WAAP for modern businesses

Tuesday, 12 July 2022 20:48

The importance of WAAP for modern businesses

By Jeff Broth

GUEST OPINION: As businesses continue to move into hybrid working structures, the need to connect to the internet via third-party services and platforms has never been greater. Companies around the globe, from Twitter to 3M are currently offering work-from-home packages to their employees. As the world embraces remote work, the amount of web applications that companies are using is continually increasing.

While this means that online work can flourish, it has also led to these online applications becoming a target for cyberattacks. Considering that 40% of all data breaches come from hackers targeting web applications, it is vital to keep your systems defended.

To defend against these cyberattacks that specifically target web applications, WAAP was established. When asking what is WAAP, there is only one answer; WAAP stands for Web Application and API Protection and is any cloud-based service that is deployed to protect cloud applications.

Over the years, WAAP’s have evolved from being cutting-edge protectors into something that businesses use every single day to keep their data safe. In this article, we’ll outline the main ways that WAAP’s are used within business, outlining all the ways that they help to maintain the safety of an organization.

Why Should My Business Invest In WAAP?

Any data that is passed over the internet through a cloud-based application is a prime target for hackers looking to comb through internet data and find any private information. Traditional security software does indeed have some protection tools, but they’re not nearly advanced enough to protect from the current tools that hackers are using.

People often confuse WAAP with generalized firewalls, thinking that they both serve as a similar form of protection. This could not be further from the truth, with firewalls providing a barrier to entry at the perimeter and WAAP being a highly-specific tool that protects only web applications and APIs.

Due to how specific WAAP is, many network providers don’t provide one, citing them as too specific to matter. Yet, it is in this specificity where the bulk of attacks are currently arriving, with the fact that businesses overlook this area of cybersecurity being the perfect point of entry for hackers.

What’s more, as web applications are directly communicating with backend databases and servers for your business, if someone were to compromise them, they would effectively have direct access to the heart of your company’s data pools. From personal customer information to private financial business metrics, they could access everything.

With so much to risk, it’s no wonder that businesses around the globe are now incorporating WAAP into their cybersecurity repertoire.

What Can WAAP Do For My Business?

As a form of security that is constantly being refined to manage the most recent threats, WAAP is an incredibly important tool that your business should be turning to. Especially if you’re already using a whole host of web-based applications, then it’s better to begin with these security tools as soon as possible.

There are several core features of WAAP that set it apart, either delivering specific duties that other cybersecurity tools cannot do or increasing the power of certain general capabilities. For example:

• Web application firewall with advanced WAF capabilities
• Bot risk mitigation
• Protection from DDoS
• Protection against account hijacking

Let’s break these down further.

Web Application Firewall with Advanced WAF Capabilities

Within the world of cybersecurity, WAF (Web Application Firewall) is commonly used to protect web applications from the most basic of attacks. While these have worked for an extended period of time, they are now becoming very outdated when compared with the modern system of attacks that hackers are relying on.

WAAP takes WAF one step further, introducing a next-gen level of WAF that more accurately covers modern-era applications. The core feature that makes WAAP better at providing a firewall for web applications than WAF is the fact that they rely on both machine learning and Artificial Intelligence.

With this, not only do they protect your system, but they also become more effective over time, helping to keep your business safe from the most cutting-edge attacks.

Bot Risk Mitigation

Within a company’s WAAP, there are two core features that help to solve the problem of bots accessing your systems. These are:

• Detection - By using highly-accurate tools, WAAP is able to detect when bots are attempting to access a system, flagging them almost instantly.
• Mitigation - After being flagged, WAAP tools can then instantly put a stop to the bots by deactivating them during their earliest stages within the system.

What’s more, if you need to use bots within your system, you can create predefined rules that only allow specific bots through your layers of protection.

Protection from DDoS

One of the main benefits of WAAP when it comes to DDoS protection is how easily scalable it is. With the safeguarding of both applications and APIs simultaneously, you’re able to create layers of defence that keep absolutely everything safe.

With runtime and strain statistics, WAAP can detect when a DDoS attack is launched, and then mobilizing to support the system and ensure it remains operational.

Protection against account hijacking

When data breach events occur with millions of passwords being leaked, hackers comb through these accounts in order to access business profiles. From there, they can use the entry point into the system for a range of nefarious activities.

Using the same technology as hacking tools that expose passwords, WAAP will be able to detect when passwords have been within a leak, then mobilizing to barricade that particular account with a range of additional log-in features. With this, none of your business accounts will ever be compromised from data breaches, helping to keep your business safe.

Final Thoughts

With rising cyber threats currently plaguing businesses, companies around the globe are seeking more innovative forms of protecting their data. One of the leading technologies currently being used is WAAP.

With WAAP, you’ll be able to boost the coverage of your cybersecurity systems while strengthening existing systems, making your business impenetrable when using web applications.

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