The Network Security. Org

As security threats multiply and proliferate, so seemingly do the number and style of firewalls designed to thwart them. At Network Computing, we most recently took a closer look at Web Application Firewalls, which pick up where classic network firewalls leave off. While a network firewall keeps out intruders, a Web application firewalls protects the application layr from attacks, using deep-packet inspection to guard against SQL injection, session hijacking, cross-site scripting, buffer overflows and other threats.

What kinds of threats are we talking about? Consider:

- An attacker could enter an extremely long URL to try and create a buffer overflow.

- A cross-site scripting attack could attempt to capture legitimate user session information.

- Another style of attack involves modifying session cookie values to try and impersonate a user, thus gaining access to personal information.

- Database-driven sites are vulnerable to SQL injection attacks, where an attacker tries to guess how the application works internally, then enters SQL code into a form field to gain access to the underlying database. Security Pipeline | The Right Firewall for the Job

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