Web Server Protection Solutions

Organizations increasingly rely on the Internet to conduct business to drive their corporate strategies and increase operational effectiveness at a time when the global reach of business transactions represents new opportunities. E-Commerce web sites and partner collaboration portals enhance business opportunities and help organizations maintain real-time connectivity to their customers and partners. However, the ubiquitous nature of the Internet also creates new opportunities for cyber crime activities, which target the core infrastructure element for successful online business initiatives, the Web server.

The moment you install a Web server, you've opened a window into your local network that the entire Internet can peer through. While most visitors are content to window shop, others prefer to vandalize or even force the window open and crawl inside. The results can be embarrassing, for example, the discovery that your home page has been replaced by an obscene parody, or damaging, such as the theft of your entire customer database.

Understanding the Problem - Remote Exploits

There are security risks that affect Web servers, the networks that host Web sites, and even innocent users of Web browsers. To ensure the success of commerce or partner portals, most businesses need to focus on securing the integrity of the data, and the integrity of the transaction.
The critical areas of concern can be addressed by intrusion prevention technology. Left unprotected these Web site vulnerabilities allow unauthorized remote users to:

Steal confidential documents not intended for their eyes.
Execute commands on the server host machine, allowing them to modify the system.
Gain information about the Web server's host machine that will allow them to break into the system.

Understanding the Problem - Denial of Service Attacks

Along with the vulnerabilities listed above, businesses are also concerned with securing the integrity of the transaction. Cyber attacks that impact the performance and availability of the site cannot be tolerated. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is an attack designed to render a computer or network incapable of providing normal services. The most common DDoS attacks will target the computer's network bandwidth or connectivity. A Website DDoS attack is executed by flooding one or more of the site's Web servers with so many requests that it becomes unavailable for normal use. If an innocent user makes normal page requests during a DDoS attack, the requests may fail completely, or the pages may download so slowly as to make the Website unusable.

Click Here to download a comprehensive Web Server Protection Solution Brief that explains the problem and how the IPS 5500 can help.