Website Firewall Protection: A Complete Guide

What is a firewall, and what does it do for your website? In the world of websites and security, firewalls are really important to know about, and can be super helpful in giving your site’s visitors a safe surfing experience. In this article, you’ll learn a bit about website firewall protection.

Having some type of security plan in place for your website can mean the difference between making money or being sued because your visitors got hacked because of your lack of due diligence. That is pretty scary. However, one of the things you can do towards delivering a more secure experience to your website’s visitors, is to have some type of website firewall protection.

A firewall, or a website application firewa ll (WAF) is a type of security software that filters, and blocks specific traffic going to and from a website. Additionally, a firewall can log and monitor what is trying to go in and out of a website, which can prevent the site from being exploited for vulnerabilities.

Think of it as a type of an actual brick fence around a house. It is a way to delay or deter intruders from entering the home.

There are several types of WAF. They are:

• Personal firewall
• Hardware firewall
• Software firewall
• Packet-filtering firewall
• Stateful firewall
• Web application firewall
• Next-Generation firewall

Personal firewall

A personal firewall is used from one computer and designed to filter and monitor traffic through your computer’s ports. This type of firewall usually comes with your computer.

Hardware firewall

A hardware firewall is a built appliance designed to act like a network boundary where every link has to go through it before anything else, and analyzes both inbound and outbound traffic.

Software firewall

A software firewall is pretty much the same as a personal firewall, as it is installed on the computer that monitors what goes in and out of your computer in order to keep your Internet experience secure.

Packet-filtering firewall

A packet-filtering firewall is a type of firewall that deals with the data or packets of information sent to the Internet and back to the user’s computer. Each packet is analyzed and will either be dropped or accepted if it passes a set of pre-programmed rules. Unfortunately, this is the least desired type of firewall, as it’s easy for hackers to trick, in order to get data to pass the set rules.

Stateful firewall

A stateful firewall is different from packet-filtering firewalls, as rather than analyzing each and every individual packet of data, it analyzes dynamic info while also allowing packets through. With a stateful firewall, you can block static IP addresses or the actual computer port’s IP.

Web application firewall

A web application firewall is designed to monitor HTTP traffic in and out of a web application. This is great for websites, to prevent bad bots and hackers from infiltrating the website.

Next-Generation firewall

A next-generation firewall or NGFW, is great for enterprise level servers to provide deep-filtering, infection prevention, and application monitoring. This is the most advanced type of firewall technology.

You need website firewall protection because it adds a nice layer of security to prevent bad bots from hacking into your website. In some small cases of being hacked, a site could redirect to a malicious website. In worst case hackings, you could lose every file and your database.

Unfortunately, the majority of hacks are random and never personal. Additionally, there are so many types of viruses and malware that you won’t be able to predict what could happen to your site, even if you keep the scripts that run it up-to-date. Having website firewall protection is just one of many roadblocks you can set up between your site and bad bots trying to spread malware.

Think about it - a website isn’t something you build and then just leave it be. You’ve got to monitor it. However, as a busy business owner, you don’t have that time. This is where implementing a firewall can help automate some of that needed monitoring.

Additionally, unless your business specializes in cyber security or website security, you’re more than likely unable to discern the difference between bad traffic and good traffic, let alone be able to catch and block every single one that visits your website. In the end, using website firewall protection is a time-saving investment toward protecting your small business.

If you want to get website firewall protection for your website, you have a few options, and it’s based on what you’re using for your website.

• Content Management System specific security
• Cloudflare WAF

Content Management System specific security

If you’re using a content management system like WordPress or Drupal, you can use a security plugin or module. For example, most of the popular WordPress security plugins offer a free or paid firewall. The firewall works alongside the plugin to monitor traffic and block anything suspicious, while maintaining the integrity of the website’s files.

Cloudflare WAF

Cloudflare is not just a content network delivery, but it offers a web application firewall as part of its service, even with a free account. In fact, when you configure your site to Cloudflare, you’re directing your website through their network, and it adds a layer of protection to filter out bad traffic. Oh, and yes, again, you can take advantage of their WAF for free.

If you are using a CMS and a security plugin with a firewall, you can still use Cloudflare alongside it. This gives you extra protection from your site being infiltrated by malware. Cloudflare’s setup wizard gives you simple instructions on how to sign your website up.

It works with standalone static HTML sites, custom-built websites, and most CMS.

After reading this article, in the case you’ve realized you don’t know if you have any website firewall protection in place, ask your web host. Additionally, it’s probably time to make sure you have some sort of security and backup plan to prevent the worst from occurring, if your website were ever to be hacked. Hopefully, this article has been super helpful in making you more conscious about website firewall protection and your overall site’s security.