These are just a few of the reasons why many companies today are turning to WAFs, in their many forms, to meet the need for a 'bolt on security' approach that protects company networks and resources - as well as partner and customer data - from malfeasance over Internet. Web-based VPN portals are especially challenging in that they are designed to be a secure access channel into a company, and yet they exist on the open Internet - meaning anyone can make a call to the webpage and access its unrestricted content. For example, HTML pages of old were never designed to protect entire databases full of credit card information or enterprise systems from determined hackers. It has to maintain wide availability while maintaining proper user authorization and data security. What makes Web security so challenging is that WAF design has to be both 'open' and secure. These actors can be anyone from a teenager testing out newly learned SQL injection skills on an organization's website, to a nation-state sponsored attacker looking to steal its proprietary information. While WAFs have grown in maturity and popularity over the years, so too have Web-based threat actors that they defend against.

Waf cyber security