Microsoft has decided to strengthen cloud security on Azure platform with a new Web Application firewall. Thus, this step will from now on make it arduous for cyber attackers to target web applications hosted on Azure Cloud computing platform.
Azure Web Application Firewall, which is a component of Azure Application Gateway is now available in all regions where data centers of Azure are based. The Gateway is an HTTP load balancing SSL offloading system that enables businesses to build and deliver scalable and secure web applications.
Therefore, customers hosting their applications on the Azure cloud can fortify their applications and make them less susceptible to cross-site scripting attacks, SQL injection and other methods of exploiting or disrupting web applications.
Microsoft has also made it official that the new firewall can offer protection to more than 20 websites hosted on a single gateway.
As the cyberspace is filled with all sorts of hidden dangers, Azure Web Application Firewall has the ability to stop attacks such as HTTP request smuggling and response splitting, Command Injection and remote file inclusion.
The highlight of this cloud security offering is that the new firewall can thwart attacks that depend on HTTP protocol anomalies and violations, along with misconfigured Apache and Internet Information Services deployments, commonly seen among servers and applications involved in delivering a web application.
Furthermore, Microsoft Azure Web Firewall is programmed to block bots and crawlers in an automated way and so helps customers in isolating themselves from HTTP denial of service attacks, such as the one which hit Blogger Brian Krebs last year. The website was hit by 665 Gbps of disruptive traffic bringing his site rankings and traffic earnings to a major halt.
Azure Monitor feature in the new firewall will help keep a track of attacks launched on hosted web applications of azure. The JavaScript Object Notation(JSON) formatted log goes directly to the customer’s storage account.
Note- Azure Web Application Firewall logs can be utilized with Operations Management Suite, Microsoft cloud-based IT Management products used for advanced analytics. Azure Security Center integration is in progress and can be expected by this year end.
