What is a WAF? Increase SaaS security for your web-based retail software
Web applications have become the lifeblood of modern retail operations in the digital age. As retailers rely more on cloud-based SaaS platforms that give access to multiple web applications, the importance of robust SaaS security measures to protect these applications becomes paramount. One of these measures is the adoption of a Web Application Firewall (WAF).
What is a WAF?
A WAF helps protect web applications by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic trying to access them. It typically protects web applications from attacks such as cross-site forgery, cross-site scripting (XSS), file inclusion, and SQL injection, among others. A WAF however must be viewed as one part of a comprehensive, multi-layered security strategy, rather than a standalone solution.
How it improves Cloud and SaaS security
A WAF is composed of layered defenses to filter out malicious traffic, resulting in enhanced cloud security for web applications.
- Protection against common web-based attacks. Web Application Firewalls are designed to protect web applications from common threats like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), SQL injection, and Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). These attacks, if successful, can result in data breaches, application downtime, or, worse, complete system takeover. By inspecting incoming traffic for malicious patterns, a WAF can help prevent these attacks from reaching the application.
- Compliance with data security standards. A WAF can help retailers meet data security standards such as PCI DSS. PCI DSS requires businesses to have a firewall in place to protect cardholder data. As a result, implementing a WAF improves not only security but also regulatory compliance.
- Zero-day exploit prevention. Cybercriminals frequently exploit unknown vulnerabilities (zero-day exploits) in web applications to gain unauthorized access. This type of security system can protect against such threats, providing an additional layer of security against evolving cyber threats.
- Blocking of bot traffic. Bot traffic is a common target for retail websites, which can result in DoS attacks, skew analytics, and increase infrastructure costs. A Web Application Firewall can distinguish between legitimate human traffic and bot traffic, allowing harmful or unwanted bots to be blocked.
- Prevention of data leakage. A WAF can help prevent data leaks by masking sensitive data like credit cards or Social Security numbers. If a data breach occurs, this feature ensures that the leaked information is rendered useless to the attacker.
- API security: APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are essential in today’s retail ecosystem for facilitating integrations and providing seamless customer experiences. APIs, on the other hand, provide cybercriminals with new attack vectors. A WAF can safeguard APIs against threats and attacks while also ensuring their integrity and security.
Openbravo WAF
Openbravo offers a WAF as a premium subscription extension to its Cloud clients. Openbravo WAF leverages the leading Cloudflare technology, widely recognized as a market leader in the Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) space.
Openbravo WAF rollout is gradual and controlled to ensure the WAF protection is optimized and only malicious traffic is blocked. The main capabilities offered by Openbravo WAF are:
- Managed rules offer advanced zero-day vulnerability protections.
- Core OWASP rules block familiar “Top 10” attack techniques.
- Custom rulesets deliver tailored protections to block any threat.
- Advanced DDoS: Priority IP address ranges and routing to ensure maximum mitigation speed and availability.
- Exposed credential checks monitor and block the use of stolen/exposed credentials for account takeover.
- Sensitive data detection alerts on responses containing sensitive data.
- Advanced rate limiting prevents abuse, DDoS, and brute force attempts along with API-centric controls.
- Flexible response options allow for blocking, logging, rate limiting, or challenging.
Are you considering moving from your legacy on-premise system to a new cloud-based SaaS unified commerce platform, but you are worried about security? Contact us today and learn how Openbravo will give you peace of mind with our managed cloud services and tools like Openbravo WAF.
