To get value out of your WAF investment – which means blocking threats, keeping unwanted requests and malware from hitting applications, and virtually patching known vulnerabilities in the application stack – the WAF must be tuned regularly. As we mentioned in our introduction, WAF is not a “set and forget” tool – it’s a security platform which requires adjustment for new and evolving threats.
This Summary is a short rant on how most firms appear baffled about how to handle mobile and cloud computing. Companies tend to view the cloud and mobile computing as wonderful new advancements, but unfortunately without thinking critically about how customers want to use these technologies – instead they tend to project their own desires onto the technology. Just as I imagine early automobiles were saddled with legacy holdovers from horse-drawn carriages, when they were in fact something new.…
I’m going to rant a bit this morning. I’m due. Overdue, in fact. I have been far too well behaved lately. But as I mentioned in this week’s Incite, summer is over and it’s time to stir the pot a bit.
As we discussed in the Endpoint Security Management Lifecycle, there are controls you use periodically and controls you need to run on an ongoing basis. This post will dig into the periodic controls, including patch and configuration management.
It’s hard to believe, but the summer is over. Not the brutally hot weather – that’s still around and will be for a couple more months in the ATL. But for my kids, it’s over. We picked the girls up at camp over the weekend and made the trek back home. They settled in pretty nicely, much better than the Boy.
As we discussed previously in The Trouble with WAFs, there are many reasons WAFs frustrate both security and application developers. But thanks to the ‘gift’ of PCI, many organizations have a WAF in-house, and now they want to use it (more) effectively. Which is a good thing, by the way. We also pointed out that many of the WAF issues our research has discovered were not problems with technology. There is entirely too much failure to effectively manage WAF.
As we described in The Business Impact of Managing Endpoint Security, the world is complex and only getting more so. You need to deal with more devices, mobility, emerging attack vectors, and virtualization, among other things. So you need to graduate from the tactical view of endpoint security.
Rich here.
Two weeks ago I got to experience something that wasn’t on the bucket list because it was so over the top I lacked the creativity to even think of putting it on the bucket list.
Obviously bad news sells. If you have any doubt about that, watch your local news. Wherever you are. The first three stories are inevitably bad news. Fires, murders, stupid political fiascos. Then maybe you’ll see a human interest story. Maybe. Then some sports and the weather and that’s it. Let’s just say I haven’t watched any newscast in a long time. But this focus on negativity has permeated every aspect of the media, and it’s nauseating.
We kicked off the Pragmatic WAF series by setting the stage in the last post, highlighting the quandary WAFs represent to most enterprises. On one hand, compliance mandates have made WAF the path of least resistance for application security. Plenty of folks have devoted a ton of effort to making WAF work, and they are now looking for even more value, above and beyond the compliance checkbox.