Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cloud
    • Cloud
    • Cybersecurity

    Microsoft Thwarts Cyber-Attacks with Azure Web Application Firewall

    By
    Pedro Hernandez
    -
    March 31, 2017
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Azure Data Loss Prevention

      Microsoft is making it harder for cyber-attackers to target web applications hosted on its Azure cloud computing platform.

      Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF), a component of the company’s Azure Application Gateway offering, is now generally available in all public Azure data center regions. Azure Application Gateway is a cloud-based HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) load-balancing and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) offloading system that enables businesses to build and deliver scalable and secure web applications.

      With the addition of the Web Application Firewall, customers can now fortify their applications, making them less susceptible to cross-site scripting attacks, SQL injection and other methods of exploiting or disrupting web applications. The firewall provides protection for up to 20 websites per gateway.

      In its analysis of web security landscape for the fourth quarter of 2016, Akamai found that SQL injection was responsible for 51 percent of all web application attacks. As the term suggests, SQL injection involves inserting or “injecting” code into database-driven applications for the purposes of tampering with data, extracting information and other activities that pose a risk to sensitive or critical business data.

      In addition to blocking SQL injection and cross-site scripting attempts, Azure Web Application Firewall can stop other common attack methods like remote file inclusion, command injection and HTTP request smuggling and response splitting, explained Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president of Azure Networking at Microsoft, in a March 30 blog post.

      It can also thwart attacks that depend on HTTP protocol anomalies and violations, along with misconfigured Apache and Internet Information Services (IIS) deployments, among other servers and applications involved in delivering a web application.

      Automated tools like bots and crawlers are similarly blocked. Finally, the firewall helps customers stand up to debilitating HTTP denial-of-service attacks, added Khalidi.

      Packing a big punch, courtesy of vast armies of compromised PCs and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, denial-of-service attacks have emerged into one of the leading threats affecting today’s web-facing businesses.

      Last September, a website belonging to renowned security blogger Brian Krebs was hit with a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that overwhelmed his site with 665 Gbps of disruptive traffic.

       The scale of the attack forced Akamai, the content delivery network who provided DDoS protection to the blog, to drop its support Krebs. Around the same time, French cloud computing company OVH reported a DDoS attack approaching 1 Tbps.

      For watchful administrators, Khalidi added that the new firewall “provides the ability to monitor web applications against attacks using a real-time WAF log that is integrated with Azure Monitor to track WAF alerts and easily monitor trends. The JSON [JavaScript Object Notation] formatted log goes directly to the customer’s storage account.”

      Azure Web Application Firewall logs can also be used with Operations Management Suite, Microsoft’s cloud-based IT management product, for advanced analytics. An integration with Azure Security Center is in the works enabling unified security management, added Khalidi.

      Pedro Hernandez
      Pedro Hernandez is a contributor to eWEEK and the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Previously, he served as a managing editor for the Internet.com network of IT-related websites and as the Green IT curator for GigaOM Pro.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×