In 2023 alone, the global landscape faced a staggering 6.8 billion cyberattacks on websites, underlining the critical need for robust security measures. Banking, finance, and insurance sectors witnessed over 90% bot attacks, while healthcare sites experienced a 100% bot attack rate. These alarming statistics highlight the urgent need for robust website security measures. This blog explores the fundamentals of website protection and best practices to secure your website.

As businesses shift to modern hosting platforms, they must go beyond just network security and pay closer attention to protecting their applications. Simply building walls around data centers won’t keep attackers away when apps are in the cloud. In today’s digital world, where companies depend on cloud services for storage, computing, and software, having strong cloud security is crucial.

ConnectWise ScreenConnect, a widely used remote desktop product, has recently been found vulnerable to two critical security flaws, assigned CVE numbers CVE-2024-1709 and CVE-2024-1708. These vulnerabilities, if exploited, can lead to remote code execution, potentially compromising sensitive data and critical systems. What’s more alarming is that reports are indicating active exploitation of these vulnerabilities in the wild.

Web browsers are now essential for any business, offering a convenient window to websites and a single platform for accessing content. However, this convenience comes at the cost of browser security. 95% of undetectable malware is spread through web browsing. Even more alarming is that browse-borne malware costs organizations an average of $ 3.2M. So, how do you protect your end-users from these attacks?

How do you approach bot management? For certain businesses, the optimal approach could involve selecting a single bot management software to meet their existing bot detection and management needs. For some companies, combining behavioural analytics for identifying malicious bot behaviour and a WAF (WAAP) to defend against vulnerability exploits, DDoS attacks, and API security breaches is essential.

An XXE vulnerability is a security vulnerability that allows attackers to access sensitive data or execute malicious code in a web application. This happens when the application accepts XML input from an untrusted source and doesn’t properly validate it. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by crafting a special XML input that includes a reference to an external resource (like a file or URL) that they control.

Unknown threats are the real risk. One such example is, Zero-day vulnerability, having been used in real-time attacks but not yet disclosed by the software vendor. In 2023 alone, 3324 zero-day vulnerabilities were identified in websites protected by AppTrana WAAP, highlighting the urgency of understanding and addressing these risks. This blog delves into the essence of zero-day vulnerabilities, exploring how they operate and crucial best practices to defend against potential exploitation.

A web application firewall is a security software that observes and filters HTTP/HTTPS traffic between a web application and the internet. While this has been available for decades, with the evolution of the threat landscape, WAFs have also added additional capabilities to protect not only web apps but also APIs against a range of attacks, including DDoS and bot attacks. So, the category has evolved and is currently called Web Application and API Protection (WAAP).

To comply with the security audit requirements of SOC 2, PCI, and others, your application audit report should have zero open vulnerabilities. Most companies perform these audits at least annually, and the audits are more frequent for highly regulated industries such as finance and healthcare. However, 31% of critical and high vulnerabilities remain open after 180 days – according to The State of Application Security.

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) remains a continuing threat, exposing user data and application integrity. However, with proactive measures like anti-CSRF tokens and additional defenses, you can protect your applications against CSRF attacks. Let’s delve into the depths of CSRF vulnerabilities and explore practical strategies to boost your web application security.