What is a Web Application Firewall (WAF)?

A Web application firewall (WAF) or application-layer firewall is an appliance or software designed to protect web applications against attacks and data leakage. It sits between the Web server and the Internet, analyzing application layer messages for violations in the programmed security policy.



WAFs address different security issues than network firewalls and intrusion detection/prevention systems, which are basically designed to defend the perimeter of the network. WAFs are designed to protect application-layer traffic through signatures and acceptable-use profiles.



Here is the Application Security Development Lifecycle from Microsoft.







WAFs prevent threats when it is inconvenient to modify code. They also provide an important feedback loop to developers as part of the overall SDLC process.

How important is WAF to your application security program?

Since WAFs examine the entire network packet, they have more extensive logging capabilities and can record application-specific commands. We need to define carefully what information your firewall should log; ideally consisting of full request and response data, including headers and body payloads. By having a Web application firewall in place as part of a layered security model, you can observe, monitor and look for any signs of intrusion.



Selecting the right WAF for your organization

Before choosing a WAF solution, you need to answer the following questions:

How well does it help meet your organization’s security policy objectives and regulatory requirements?

Do you have the required in-house skills to use it correctly and effectively?

How will it affect your existing services and users and at what cost?

Will it be able to scale up to meet your peak throughput?

How can we help you?

We completely understand that selecting and deploying a WAF solution can be a daunting task for any organization, hence we offer customized WAF deployment especially catering to the unique business needs of your organization.



Our in-depth understanding of web application security helps us configure and deploy the right solution for your environment. NII has partnered with Imperva for its SecureSphere solution. Our team of experts at NII are well versed in the deployment of Imperva SecureSphere WAF. Our solutions team has successfully implemented it for many of our clients.



We also provide robust after-sales support which is so essential for the smooth running of your business operations. We also undertake user training and awareness workshops sessions for the clear understanding of the solution across your organization.





How we can help your organization? Strong support of Solutions Team:NII has been working in close association with leading MDM solution products. Our solution team is well trained and qualified to handle any support related queries you may have.



Currently we have actively associated our MDM partnership with MobileIron. Our team consists of certified MobileIron experts who understand each and every module of the solution and have extensive hands on experience.



Security Awareness Trainings:We conduct numerous security trainings for our clients and help them to understand the risks faced by carrying corporate data on their mobile devices. We put forward the precautions and industry best practices they need to follow for securing the sensitive information.



Social Engineering Exercises:We also conduct live sessions on social engineering exercises which demonstrate by practical examples how even a reasonably well informed person about security can be easily tipped off by cleverly crafted social engineering attacks. Having knowledge of these kind of attacks makes sure your corporate data is secure in hands of your employees.



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