Signal Sciences - Detailed Review

Security Tools

Signal Sciences - Detailed Review Contents

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Signal Sciences - Product Overview

Signal Sciences Overview

Signal Sciences, now integrated into Fastly as the Fastly Next-Gen WAF, is a prominent solution in the security tools category, particularly focused on web application and API protection.

Primary Function

The primary function of Signal Sciences is to provide advanced web application and API protection (WAAP) for applications, APIs, and microservices. It ensures real-time protection against various attacks, including malicious and anomalous web requests, across different environments such as containers, on-premises, cloud, and edge deployments.

Target Audience

The target audience for Signal Sciences includes developers, operations teams, and security professionals. It is particularly beneficial for businesses that are growing and innovating quickly, as it offers a unified solution that integrates well with various application architectures and DevOps practices.

Key Features

SmartParse Detection

Unlike traditional regex-based WAFs, Signal Sciences uses SmartParse, a highly accurate detection method that evaluates the context of each request to identify malicious or anomalous payloads.

Rate Limiting

This feature stops malicious high-volume web requests, reduces server and API utilization, and allows legitimate traffic to pass through.

Flexible Deployment

The solution can be deployed in any environment, providing protection wherever the applications and APIs are hosted.

Real-Time Event Details

It collects security posture information through lightweight software modules and agents, providing real-time event details via self-service dashboards, intelligent alerting, and powerful reporting.

Threat Intelligence

Signal Sciences aggregates attack data and combines it with other security services to analyze and detect potential future anomalies or attacks, enhancing overall security through features like the Network Learning Exchange (NLX).

API Integration

The solution offers APIs that allow for integration with applications and services, enabling programmatic control over the WAF features via standard HTTP response codes and verbs.

By leveraging these features, Signal Sciences helps organizations protect their web applications and APIs effectively, making security more visible, accessible, and effective for various teams.

Signal Sciences - User Interface and Experience

User Interface and Experience

The user interface and experience of Signal Sciences, now integrated with Fastly, are crafted to be user-friendly and efficient, particularly in the context of its AI-driven web application firewall (WAF) product.

Ease of Use

Signal Sciences is known for its simplicity and ease of setup. The process is streamlined to the point where a simple DNS change can get you up and running on the cloud version in about five minutes, and the on-premises setup takes only 10 to 15 minutes.

User Interface

The interface is designed to be intuitive, eliminating the need for complicated scripting languages or regex modifications. Users can configure their WAFs using “Power Rules,” which act as a user-friendly bridge to pair input conditions with output actions. This makes the setup and implementation process as straightforward as possible.

Managed Rules and Customization

While Signal Sciences provides managed rulesets and wizards to help users get started, it does not limit technical flexibility. Users can get granular with these rules, choosing how they function or turning them off entirely if needed. This balance ensures that the system is both easy to use and highly customizable.

Integration and Unified Experience

Fastly and Signal Sciences have introduced a unified login experience, allowing users to access both consoles with a single set of login credentials. This simplifies user management and reduces the friction associated with managing multiple distinct credentials. Users can switch between Fastly and Signal Sciences consoles seamlessly without needing to log in again.

Threat Intelligence and Alerts

The system leverages threat intelligence gathered from various sources, including other subscribers, to detect potential anomalies and attacks. This intelligence is integrated into the control panels through features like the Network Learning Exchange (NLX), which alerts users to potential bad actors identified elsewhere in the network.

Overall User Experience

The overall user experience is focused on simplicity and efficiency. The SmartParse system, which uses artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis, simplifies the monitoring and protection process, making it a ‘set it and forget it’ service. This approach reduces the need for manual tweaking, rule tuning, and pattern matching settings, which in turn lowers operational costs.

In summary, Signal Sciences offers a user-friendly interface that is easy to set up and manage, with a strong emphasis on simplicity, customization, and integrated threat intelligence, all of which contribute to a seamless and efficient user experience.

Signal Sciences - Key Features and Functionality

Signal Sciences Overview

Signal Sciences, now integrated with Fastly, offers a range of advanced features that make it a formidable tool in the security tools and AI-driven product category. Here are the main features and how they work:

SmartParse and AI-Driven Detection

Signal Sciences uses its proprietary SmartParse system, which leverages artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis to monitor and interpret web traffic. This system helps in accurately identifying a wide array of attack types and malicious behavior without the need for signature tuning, significantly reducing false positives.

Real-Time Protection and Automation

The platform is capable of automating response behaviors, allowing 95% of its customers to run the product in fully automated mode. This automation lowers operating costs and ensures that malicious traffic is blocked in real-time, protecting the application from various threats such as botnet attacks, account takeovers, credential stuffing, API abuse, and DDoS mitigation.

Flexible Deployment Options

Signal Sciences can be deployed in various environments, including multi-cloud, containers, on-premises, and hybrid setups. It supports different delivery architectures like websites, APIs, and microservices, making it versatile and adaptable to different hosting needs.

Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP)

Although Signal Sciences is often described as agentless, it can also deploy a RASP solution by embedding a code module into the application itself and deploying an agent onto each application server. This setup allows for deeper integration with the application, providing additional signals and logging for more insightful security measures.

Power Rules and Custom Rulesets

Users can configure the WAF using Power Rules, which are user-friendly and do not require complicated scripting languages or regex modifications. These rules enable users to define their own signals and choose from various inputs such as path, method, user agent, or query parameter. Additionally, users can upload lists of countries, IP addresses, strings, or wildcards to include in their custom rulesets.

Alerting and Notification

Signal Sciences integrates seamlessly with various alerting tools like PagerDuty, Datadog, Slack, and Splunk. When thresholds are breached, alerts can be sent via email or push notifications, ensuring that the right people are notified based on on-call schedules. This integration helps in escalating alerts until they are acknowledged or closed.

Centralized Management and Reporting

The platform offers a single management console that provides real-time reporting capabilities, historical threat data, and detailed logging. This console allows for manual review of events, helping to identify and escalate potential threats or false positives without the need for third-party plugins or logins.

Integration with Other Tools

Signal Sciences supports integrations with a wide range of products and services, including incident response tools like Palo Alto or Cisco Threat Response, and identity and access management solutions like Cloudentity or Ambassador Edge Stack. It also supports PaaS integration through VMware Tanzu, making it easy to integrate into existing application security infrastructures.

Conclusion

These features collectively make Signal Sciences a powerful and proactive security solution that leverages AI and behavioral analysis to protect web applications effectively.

Signal Sciences - Performance and Accuracy

Performance

Signal Sciences is renowned for its high performance in web application and API security. Here are some notable aspects:

The solution is built to scale and can handle a vast volume of requests; for instance, it processes over 2 trillion production requests every month and protects over 40,000 applications and APIs.
It operates effectively in various hosting environments, including multi-cloud, containers, and on-premises, making it highly flexible and adaptable to different deployment architectures.
The system is designed to work in fully automated mode, with 95% of customers running it this way, which significantly reduces operating overhead and allows teams to focus on other tasks.

Accuracy

The accuracy of Signal Sciences is a major differentiator:

The technology uses a unique agent/code module configuration that derives signals directly from the running web application, enabling a higher level of accuracy in identifying various attack types and malicious behavior.
It employs machine learning algorithms to monitor actual user behavior over time, which helps in intelligently separating legitimate traffic from malicious traffic. This approach minimizes false positives and ensures that legitimate user activity is not blocked.
The solution includes a broad and deep set of filters for WAF and DDoS protection, which are more sensitive than those in other solutions like Fastly’s DDoS offering. This allows for the detection of more sophisticated attacks, such as surgical denial of service attempts that can mimic normal user traffic.

Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP)

Signal Sciences’ RASP capabilities further enhance its accuracy and performance:

By embedding a code module into the application itself and deploying an agent onto each application server, the system can analyze incoming traffic requests, identify malicious behavior, and enforce blocking actions at a very granular level.
This integrated approach provides additional logging and insight, allowing for more effective attack mitigation and better visibility into application security.

Limitations and Areas for Improvement

While Signal Sciences is highly regarded, there are some areas to consider:

Legacy WAF solutions often have limitations such as extensive ongoing tuning, inability to operate in full blocking mode, difficulty scaling in multi-cloud and serverless environments, and limited visibility and reporting. Signal Sciences addresses many of these issues but may still require some configuration and monitoring to ensure optimal performance.
The solution, like any advanced security tool, may require some initial setup and integration with existing DevOps and security toolchains. However, customers have reported that the deployment process is relatively smooth and minimally disruptive.

Conclusion

In summary, Signal Sciences stands out for its high accuracy and performance in web application and API security, particularly due to its advanced machine learning capabilities, flexible deployment options, and integrated RASP technology. While it addresses many of the limitations of legacy WAF solutions, it still requires careful setup and ongoing monitoring to maximize its benefits.

Signal Sciences - Pricing and Plans

Pricing Structure

Signal Sciences, as part of Fastly’s offerings, does not have its pricing publicly listed in a straightforward manner. However, here is what can be inferred from the available resources:

Fastly’s General Pricing Model

Fastly’s pricing, which includes their Next-Gen WAF powered by Signal Sciences, is structured into several tiers:

Free Tier

This tier is not specifically mentioned for the WAF, but Fastly offers a free trial for their network services, which can include some security features. However, this is more geared towards their CDN and other network services rather than the WAF specifically.

Usage-Based Pricing

Fastly’s pricing scales with usage. For their general services, you pay $50 per month plus usage fees. This includes unrestricted bandwidth, requests, and TLS certificates. However, specific WAF pricing is not detailed in this model.

Packages

Smaller Businesses: Starting at $1,500 per month, this package includes core CDN capabilities and some security features but does not specify WAF details.
Cost-Conscious Businesses: $6,000 per month, with more extensive features but still lacks specific WAF pricing.
Growing Businesses: Custom pricing for enhanced performance and resiliency.
Larger Businesses: Custom pricing for complex distributed systems, including advanced security features.

Custom and Enterprise Plans

For more comprehensive and customized plans, including advanced WAF protection, you need to contact Fastly’s sales team. These plans are tailored for larger businesses and include features like enhanced security, technical support, and rapid response capabilities.

Specific WAF Features

While the exact pricing for the WAF is not provided, the Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) offers features such as unified web app and API security, flexible deployment options, and proactive protection. It integrates into DevOps and security toolchains, providing comprehensive visibility and protection without sacrificing performance.

Cost Savings

Signal Sciences, as part of Fastly, is noted to reduce costs by leveraging its SmartParse technology, which eliminates the need for managed service fees and costly installation and onboarding. This suggests that the overall cost could be lower compared to traditional WAF solutions, often one third to one half the cost.

Given the lack of explicit pricing details for the Signal Sciences WAF within Fastly’s offerings, it is best to contact Fastly’s sales team for a customized quote that fits your specific needs.

Signal Sciences - Integration and Compatibility

Integration with Other Security Tools

Signal Sciences integrates well with several security and DevOps tools, making it a versatile component in a comprehensive security strategy. For instance, it can be integrated with Splunk On-Call, allowing for the prioritization of security resources and informed decision-making through real-time alerts and insights. This integration involves configuring Signal Sciences to send alerts to Splunk On-Call, enabling centralized monitoring and response to security events. Additionally, Signal Sciences supports integration with Duo Single Sign-On, adding an extra layer of security through two-factor authentication and flexible security policies. This integration uses SAML 2.0 authentication, enabling users to log in securely through Duo’s cloud-hosted SSO identity provider.

Compatibility with Different Platforms and Devices

Signal Sciences is highly flexible and compatible with various hosting environments and delivery architectures. Here are some key points:

Multi-Cloud and On-Prem Environments

Signal Sciences can be deployed in multi-cloud, containerized, and on-prem environments, making it adaptable to different infrastructure setups.

Web Servers and Application Languages

The technology supports integration with common web servers like NGINX, Apache, and IIS, as well as various application languages such as Java, Python, PHP, node.js, and .NET. This broad compatibility ensures that Signal Sciences can be integrated into a wide range of application environments.

NGINX Plus Integration

Signal Sciences has a specific integration with NGINX Plus, where NGINX handles tasks like SSL termination, rate limiting, and load balancing. The Signal Sciences agent-module pair works within NGINX Plus to provide real-time traffic analysis and decision-making, ensuring the performance and reliability of the protected site.

Cequence Unified API Protection Platform

Signal Sciences can also integrate with the Cequence Unified API Protection Platform (UAP), offering both inline and passive integration options. This integration supports bot mitigation, API protection, and API discovery, among other features.

Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP)

One of the standout features of Signal Sciences is its RASP capabilities. Unlike traditional WAF solutions that only monitor traffic at the application tier, Signal Sciences can embed a code module directly into the application and deploy an agent on each application server. This approach provides deeper insights and more effective protection against malicious behavior by analyzing traffic and application behavior at the runtime level. In summary, Signal Sciences offers extensive integration capabilities with various security tools, DevOps platforms, and different hosting environments, making it a highly adaptable and effective solution for web application and API security.

Signal Sciences - Customer Support and Resources

Support Options for Fastly Next-Gen WAF

When using the Fastly Next-Gen WAF, which is the security product offered by Signal Sciences (now integrated into Fastly), customers have several support options and resources available to them.

Support Channels

Customers can reach out to Fastly’s technical support through various channels:

Support Portal: Users can submit, update, and track support tickets online. This portal allows you to designate a proposed severity level for the issue, although the final classification is determined by Fastly.
Email: Support tickets can also be generated via email to support@fastly.com during standard business hours. These tickets are automatically designated with a P2 severity level.
Designated Points of Contact: Subscribers can identify and maintain up to five points of contact for support communications, ensuring all support requests are initiated and communicated through these designated contacts.

Response Times

The response times vary based on the severity of the issue and the subscription level:

Urgent – Critical Impact (P0): 60 minutes or less with updates every 2 hours for Professional and Premier plans, and 1 business day with updates every 4 business days for Essential plans.
High – Serious Impact (P1): 4 business hours with updates every 12 business hours for Professional and Premier plans, and 1 business day with updates every 4 business days for Essential plans.
Normal – Minor Impact (P2): 1 business day with updates every 4 business days across all plans.
Low – Minor Impact (P3): 2 business days with no further updates across all plans.

Additional Resources

Documentation and Release Notes: Customers can access detailed documentation and release notes for updates, bug fixes, and software upgrades. They can also subscribe to receive emails or integrate with third-party tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams to stay informed about updates.
API and Integration: The Signal Sciences API allows integration with applications and services via the Next-Gen WAF control panel or the Fastly control panel. This enables programmatic control over various features using standard HTTP response codes and verbs.
Threat Intelligence: Customers benefit from aggregated threat intelligence collected from the use of Next-Gen WAF and other Fastly services, which helps in detecting and preventing potential future anomalies or attacks through features like the Network Learning Exchange (NLX).
DDoS Mitigation: Fastly provides built-in DDoS mitigation features for Edge and Cloud WAF deployments, which detect and mitigate DDoS attacks without requiring additional installation or maintenance.

SLA and Availability

Fastly ensures a 99.9% availability of the Signal Sciences Hosted Dashboard, with service credits available if this SLA is not met. The availability is calculated based on the minutes the dashboard is available in a month, excluding unavailability caused by issues not under Fastly’s control.

By leveraging these support channels, resources, and features, customers can effectively manage and secure their web applications and APIs with the Fastly Next-Gen WAF.

Signal Sciences - Pros and Cons

Advantages of Signal Sciences

Signal Sciences, a leading web application security company, offers several significant advantages in the security tools AI-driven product category:

High Accuracy and Automation

Signal Sciences stands out for its high accuracy in identifying various types of attacks and malicious behavior. This accuracy, achieved through a unique agent/code module configuration, allows for automated response behavior, reducing operating costs. As a result, 95% of their customers run the product in fully automated mode, which is a significant improvement over legacy WAF solutions that often cannot be operated in full blocking mode due to the risk of blocking legitimate user traffic.

Flexibility and Modularity

The technology is highly flexible and modular, making it suitable for various hosting environments such as multi-cloud, containers, and on-premises setups. It also supports different delivery architectures, including websites, APIs, and microservices. This flexibility ensures that the solution can adapt to a wide range of customer needs.

Advanced Threat Detection

Signal Sciences uses a proprietary SmartParse system that leverages artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis to monitor and understand traffic context. This approach simplifies the WAF setup process and provides a more proactive and automated security solution. The system can detect and mitigate sophisticated attacks, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and denial of service attempts, with a high degree of accuracy.

Integration and Visibility

The platform offers extensive integrations with common DevOps and security tools like Slack, Jira, PagerDuty, Datadog, Splunk, and Cisco Threat Response. This ensures seamless integration with existing CI/CD pipelines and provides real-time reporting, historical threat data, and detailed logging capabilities from a single management console.

Cost Efficiency

Signal Sciences significantly reduces costs by eliminating the need for managed service fees, costly installations, and ongoing rule tuning. The use of AI-driven technology means there is no need for manual configuration of pattern matching settings, making it often one-third to one-half the cost of traditional WAF solutions.

Disadvantages of Signal Sciences

While Signal Sciences offers numerous advantages, there are some potential drawbacks to consider:

Limited Public Pricing Information

Signal Sciences does not make its pricing publicly available, which can make it difficult for potential customers to compare costs without direct inquiry. However, it is noted that the solution is generally more cost-effective than traditional WAFs.

Dependence on Automated Systems

Although the high automation level is a significant advantage, there might be concerns about relying too heavily on automated systems. However, Signal Sciences’ high accuracy and ability to integrate deeply with the application itself mitigate this risk to a large extent.

Potential Learning Curve

While the setup process is generally streamlined, some users might still need time to fully understand and utilize the advanced features of the SmartParse system and Power Rules. However, the interface is designed to be user-friendly, and the company provides support to ease the transition.

Overreliance on AI

There could be a risk of overreliance on AI-driven systems, but Signal Sciences’ approach of combining AI with behavioral analysis and granular control options helps balance this risk. The system is designed to provide detailed insights and allow for manual review of detected threats, ensuring that users remain in control. In summary, Signal Sciences offers a highly effective, automated, and cost-efficient web application security solution with advanced threat detection capabilities and extensive integration options. While there are some minor drawbacks, the overall benefits make it a strong choice for companies seeking robust web application security.

Signal Sciences - Comparison with Competitors

When Comparing Signal Sciences with Competitors

When comparing Signal Sciences, a web application and API security platform, with its competitors in the AI-driven security tools category, here are some key points to consider:

Unique Features of Signal Sciences

Signal Sciences, now part of Fastly, is recognized for its advanced web application firewall (WAF) and API protection capabilities. It is particularly noted for its ability to protect against a wide range of threats, including OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS), as well as account takeovers, brute force attacks, and bad bots.
The platform offers real-time monitoring and defense for web applications, APIs, and microservices, making it a comprehensive solution for modern web security.
Signal Sciences has been named a Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Web Application Firewalls, indicating strong customer satisfaction and validation of its innovation and effectiveness.

Competitors and Alternatives

reCAPTCHA Enterprise

reCAPTCHA Enterprise is a significant competitor, holding a 42.61% market share in the web and mobile application security category. It focuses on bot detection and prevention, using advanced risk analysis to protect web applications from automated attacks.

WordFence

WordFence is another major competitor with a 40.42% market share. It is particularly popular among WordPress users, offering firewall protection, malware scanning, and other security features to safeguard websites.

Imperva

Imperva holds a 5.62% market share and is known for its comprehensive web application security solutions, including WAF, DDoS protection, and bot management. It provides detailed analytics and reporting to help security teams make informed decisions.

AI-Driven Security Tools

While Signal Sciences is strong in traditional WAF and API protection, some competitors and alternatives are more focused on AI-driven security:

Vectra AI

Vectra AI uses AI to detect and respond to cyberattacks across hybrid environments. It leverages patented Attack Signal Intelligence to identify and prioritize potential attacks, reducing false positives by up to 90%. This makes it a strong option for organizations needing advanced threat detection and response.

Darktrace

Darktrace is known for its autonomous response technology that interrupts cyber-attacks in real-time. It uses AI algorithms to detect novel threats that other tools might miss, making it a good choice for organizations looking for proactive threat neutralization.

SentinelOne

SentinelOne offers fully autonomous cybersecurity powered by AI, focusing on advanced threat hunting and incident response. It is highly regarded for its endpoint security and threat prevention capabilities.

Key Differences and Considerations

AI Integration: While Signal Sciences excels in traditional web application security, tools like Vectra AI, Darktrace, and SentinelOne are more heavily focused on AI-driven threat detection and response.
Market Share and Customer Base: reCAPTCHA Enterprise and WordFence have a larger market share, but Signal Sciences is highly regarded by its customers and has been recognized by Gartner for its innovation and customer satisfaction.
Specific Use Cases: If an organization needs strong API protection and traditional WAF capabilities, Signal Sciences might be the best choice. However, if the focus is on AI-driven threat detection and response, alternatives like Vectra AI or Darktrace could be more suitable.

In summary, Signal Sciences stands out for its comprehensive web application and API security features, but organizations looking for more AI-centric solutions may find alternatives like Vectra AI, Darktrace, or SentinelOne to be more aligned with their needs.

Signal Sciences - Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions about Signal Sciences

What environments does Signal Sciences support?

Signal Sciences supports a wide variety of environments, including containers, hybrid environments, and standard cloud setups. It can protect applications and APIs regardless of the cloud provider, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud, as long as the server receives HTTP traffic.

How does Signal Sciences WAF work?

Signal Sciences WAF is an agentless solution that operates in the cloud, using its proprietary SmartParse system to apply both managed and custom rulesets to application traffic. This system uses artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis to monitor and understand the context of traffic, reducing false positives and simplifying the setup process.

What types of threats does Signal Sciences protect against?

Signal Sciences protects against a range of threats, including botnet attacks, account takeovers, credential stuffing, API abuse, and DDoS mitigation. It also extends protection beyond the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities.

How easy is it to set up and use Signal Sciences WAF?

Setting up Signal Sciences WAF is relatively straightforward and does not require complicated scripting languages or regex modifications. The process can be initiated with a simple DNS change, and the platform offers user-friendly features like Power Rules, which make defining custom rules intuitive. The interface is sleek and easy to use, streamlining the setup and implementation.

Can Signal Sciences integrate with other security tools and services?

Yes, Signal Sciences WAF supports integrations with various security tools and services. It can integrate with products like Palo Alto, Cisco Threat Response, and SIEM solutions for automated incident responses and log data management. It also supports integrations with CIAM vendors and PaaS platforms like VMware Tanzu.

How does Signal Sciences handle alerting and reporting?

Signal Sciences provides real-time reporting capabilities, historical threat data, and alerting features all within a single management console. Alerts can be sent via email or push notifications to apps like PagerDuty, Datadog, Slack, or Splunk. Users can configure thresholds to trigger actions and fine-tune alerting to avoid false positives.

What is the pricing model for Signal Sciences WAF?

Signal Sciences does not publicly disclose its pricing, but it is reported to be significantly lower than traditional WAF solutions. The cost savings come from the elimination of managed service fees and the reduced need for rule tuning and manual configuration, thanks to the SmartParse technology. It is estimated to be one-third to one-half the cost of more traditional WAF pricing models.

How does Signal Sciences handle false positives?

Signal Sciences’ SmartParse system virtually eliminates false positives by evaluating the context of each request and how it would execute, rather than relying on regex-based rules. This approach ensures that legitimate traffic is not blocked, even when detecting and blocking malicious requests.

Can Signal Sciences protect against zero-day threats?

Yes, Signal Sciences adapts quickly to zero-day threats. Its SmartParse system and fail-open architecture allow it to detect and block malicious requests without interrupting legitimate traffic, helping to stay ahead of new attack methods.

What kind of support does Signal Sciences offer?

Commercial support is available from Signal Sciences. Additionally, for users integrating Signal Sciences with other platforms like NGINX, support can be accessed through the respective partners, such as F5.

How does Signal Sciences handle rate limiting and traffic management?

Signal Sciences includes advanced rate limiting features to stop malicious and anomalous high-volume web requests, reducing web server and API utilization while allowing legitimate traffic through. This helps in managing traffic effectively and preventing overload on application and API endpoints.

Signal Sciences - Conclusion and Recommendation

Final Assessment of Signal Sciences in the Security Tools AI-Driven Product Category

Signal Sciences, now integrated with Fastly, offers a highly advanced and effective solution for web application, API, and microservices security. Here’s a comprehensive overview of its benefits and who would most benefit from using it.

Key Benefits and Features

Accuracy and Automation: Signal Sciences stands out with its high accuracy in identifying a wide array of attack types and malicious behavior. This is achieved through its unique agent/code module configuration that derives signals directly from the running web application, allowing for automated response behaviors and reducing operational costs. Over 95% of their customers run the product in fully automated mode.
Comprehensive Protection: The platform protects against a full spectrum of threats, including account takeovers (ATOs), business logic attacks, application abuse, bots, app DoS, and the OWASP Top 10. It also monitors and blocks unauthorized requests in various API protocols like SOAP, REST, gRPC, WebSockets, and GraphQL.
Flexibility and Modularity: Signal Sciences’ technology is flexible and modular, making it suitable for any hosting environment (multi-cloud, containers, on-prem) and delivery architecture (websites, APIs, microservices). It can deploy both as a monitoring layer in front of the application tier and by embedding a code module into the application itself, providing deep integration and enhanced security.
Customer Feedback and Recognition: The solution has received high praise from customers, with a 4.9 out of 5.0 star rating and 94% of customers recommending it. It has been recognized as a “Customers’ Choice” for Web Application Firewalls in the Gartner Peer Insights “Voice of the Customer” report for three consecutive years.

Who Would Benefit Most

Large Enterprises: Companies with critical web applications, APIs, and microservices, such as those in finance, media, healthcare, and manufacturing, would greatly benefit from Signal Sciences’ advanced security features and high accuracy in threat detection.
Development and Security Teams: The developer-friendly and fully programmable nature of the solution makes it ideal for teams that need efficient, automated, and visible security measures. It simplifies security decisions and provides exceptional visibility, enabling accurate and automated security actions.
Organizations with High Traffic: Businesses that process a high volume of web requests, such as e-commerce sites or service providers, can benefit from Signal Sciences’ ability to detect and block malicious traffic, prevent API abuse, and stop account takeover attacks without compromising site reliability.

Overall Recommendation

Signal Sciences, as part of Fastly, is a highly recommended solution for any organization seeking advanced web application, API, and microservices security. Its unique approach to security, high accuracy in threat detection, and automated response capabilities make it a valuable asset for maintaining the security and reliability of critical online assets. Given its flexibility, modularity, and strong customer feedback, it is an excellent choice for enterprises and development teams looking to enhance their security posture without adding unnecessary complexity or costs.