Signal Sciences - Detailed Review

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Signal Sciences - Detailed Review Contents

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Signal Sciences - Product Overview

Overview

Signal Sciences, now integrated into Fastly, is a leading solution in the Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) category. Here’s a brief overview of its primary function, target audience, and key features:

Primary Function

Signal Sciences is designed to provide advanced web application and API protection. It safeguards applications, APIs, and microservices from various threats, ensuring the security and integrity of web traffic.

Target Audience

The target audience includes developers, operations teams, and security professionals across diverse industries such as finance, media, healthcare, and manufacturing. It is particularly beneficial for organizations with complex, modern software delivery paradigms, including those using DevOps and CI/CD practices.

Key Features

Flexible Deployment

Signal Sciences can be deployed in any environment, including containers, on-premises, cloud, or edge environments, providing a unified solution for all application and API security needs.

Accurate Threat 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. This approach significantly reduces false positives.

Rate Limiting and Bot Mitigation

The solution includes advanced rate limiting features to stop malicious high-volume web requests and bot mitigation capabilities to protect against automated threats.

Automated Security

The technology is designed to automate response behavior, with 95% of customers running the product in fully automated mode, which helps lower operating costs.

Comprehensive Dashboards and Reporting

It provides real-time event details through self-service dashboards, intelligent alerting, and powerful reporting, enabling better visibility and management of security posture.

Conclusion

Overall, Signal Sciences offers a developer-friendly, programmable, and highly accurate security solution that integrates seamlessly with modern software delivery practices.

Signal Sciences - User Interface and Experience

User Interface and Experience

The user interface and experience of Signal Sciences, now integrated with Fastly, are designed to be user-friendly and efficient, particularly in the context of their Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) solutions.

Access and Login

Users can access the Fastly and Signal Sciences consoles using a single set of login credentials, thanks to the unified login experience. This eliminates the need to manage multiple distinct credentials, reducing user friction and improving productivity. Users can log in once and seamlessly switch between the Fastly and Signal Sciences consoles without needing to log in again.

Web Interface Controls

The web interface provides access to all features and functions of Fastly, including those related to Signal Sciences. Users can access these controls via the Fastly login page using any standard web browser. The interface is straightforward, allowing users to manage their accounts, security settings, and other features without unnecessary complexity.

Ease of Use

The system is engineered to be easy to use, with features like single sign-on (SSO) and two-factor authentication (2FA) that are enforced based on the user’s or organization’s settings. This ensures a secure and streamlined login process. The interface also includes a switcher menu that allows users to easily switch between the Fastly and Next-Gen WAF control panels, enhancing usability.

Real-Time Visibility and Management

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF provides real-time visibility into traffic and security events, enabling users to quickly diagnose and resolve issues affecting their digital services. This real-time insight is accessible through the web interface, making it easier for users to manage and protect their applications and APIs.

Integration and Flexibility

The solution is designed for maximum deployment flexibility, allowing users to deploy the Next-Gen WAF through various methods, including agent-module software pairs, edge, or cloud-based options. This flexibility, combined with the ability to integrate with existing tools, streamlines management and fits into existing workflows.

Conclusion

Overall, the user interface of Signal Sciences within the Fastly ecosystem is designed to be intuitive, secure, and efficient. It offers a seamless experience with unified login credentials, easy switching between control panels, and real-time visibility into security events, making it easier for users to protect their web applications and APIs.

Signal Sciences - Key Features and Functionality

Key Features of Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF

The Signal Sciences product, now integrated into Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF, offers several key features and functionalities that enhance web application and API security. Here are the main features and how they work:

Advanced Threat Detection

Signal Sciences uses a proprietary detection method called SmartParse, which evaluates the context of each web request to identify malicious or anomalous payloads. Unlike traditional regex-based WAFs, SmartParse assesses how a request would execute, reducing false positives and ensuring legitimate traffic is not blocked.

Real-Time Protection

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF provides real-time protection against various types of attacks, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other malicious activities. This real-time capability ensures that your applications and APIs are continuously protected from emerging threats.

Rate Limiting

The WAF includes advanced rate limiting features that stop malicious and anomalous high-volume web requests. This helps reduce the utilization of web servers and APIs, allowing legitimate traffic to pass through while blocking malicious requests.

Threat Intelligence

Signal Sciences aggregates attack data from its users and combines it with other security data to create comprehensive threat intelligence. This intelligence is used to improve the detection and prevention of future attacks without identifying individual subscribers. Users benefit from this intelligence through features like the Network Learning Exchange (NLX), which alerts them to potential bad actors identified elsewhere in the network.

Integration with DevOps Tools

The product offers seamless integration with various DevOps tools such as PagerDuty, Slack, Datadog, and Jira. These integrations allow for the creation of alerts and incidents based on critical thresholds, ensuring that the right teams are notified promptly. For example, the integration with PagerDuty enables triggering incidents by sending pages to the authorized account, and similar integrations exist for other tools.

SIEM Integrations

Signal Sciences supports integrations with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems like Splunk, ArcSight, and Sumo Logic. These integrations enable the forwarding of security event data, providing a centralized view of security incidents and facilitating better incident response.

Automated Blocking

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF features automated blocking that scales without the need for constant rules tuning. This approach ensures that anomalous traffic is blocked without disrupting legitimate user traffic or requiring extensive configuration and maintenance.

Deployment Flexibility

The WAF can be deployed in various environments, including containers, on-premises, cloud, and edge environments. This flexibility ensures that applications and APIs are protected regardless of where they are hosted.

Operational Insights

Signal Sciences provides detailed operational insights, including metrics on client-side and server-side errors, response times, and other performance indicators. These insights help teams identify and triage issues faster, improving the overall health and performance of the applications.

AI Integration

While the specific AI technologies used are not detailed, the SmartParse detection method and the aggregation of threat intelligence data involve advanced analytical capabilities that can be considered AI-driven. These features enable the WAF to make instantaneous decisions about the legitimacy of web requests and to continuously improve its detection capabilities based on aggregated data.

These features collectively ensure that the Fastly Next-Gen WAF, powered by Signal Sciences, provides comprehensive and effective protection for web applications and APIs, integrating seamlessly with existing DevOps and security tools.

Signal Sciences - Performance and Accuracy

Performance of Signal Sciences

Signal Sciences stands out for its exceptional performance in the web application firewall (WAF) category, particularly due to its advanced technology and innovative approach.

Accuracy and Automation

Accuracy and Automation: One of the key strengths of Signal Sciences is its high level of accuracy in identifying and mitigating various types of attacks, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and denial of service attempts. This accuracy enables 95% of their customers to run the product in fully automated mode, significantly reducing operating costs and the risk of blocking legitimate user traffic.
SmartParse Technology: The proprietary SmartParse system uses artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis to monitor and understand the context of each request. This approach simplifies the WAF setup process and provides a more reliable and automated security solution.
Scalability: Signal Sciences is built to scale and can protect applications, APIs, and microservices across various environments, including multi-cloud, containers, on-prem, and serverless architectures. This flexibility makes it well-suited for modern DevOps practices and large-scale web services.

Accuracy

The accuracy of Signal Sciences’ WAF is a significant factor in its performance.

Key Features of Accuracy

Granular Detection: The system examines web application request patterns at a detailed level, identifying both data extraction behaviors and denial of service attempts. This granular detection helps in distinguishing between legitimate and malicious traffic more effectively.
Machine Learning Algorithms: Signal Sciences uses machine learning algorithms that monitor actual user behavior over time, applying additional insights to separate legitimate traffic from malicious traffic. This approach reduces false positives and ensures that legitimate user activity is not blocked.
Customer Feedback: Customers, such as Duo Security, have reported high satisfaction with the accuracy of Signal Sciences’ WAF, noting that it has shown incredible intelligence in knowing what to block without affecting legitimate traffic.

Limitations and Areas for Improvement

While Signal Sciences offers a highly effective WAF solution, there are some areas to consider:

Considerations

Cost Transparency: The pricing for Signal Sciences’ WAF is not publicly available, which might make it difficult for potential customers to compare costs directly. However, it is reported to be significantly less than traditional WAF pricing models.
Rule Management: Although Signal Sciences’ SmartParse technology eliminates the need for extensive rule tuning, some users might still prefer more control over custom rule sets. The Power Rules feature helps simplify this process, but it may not offer the same level of customization as some other solutions.
Legacy System Integration: While Signal Sciences excels in modern environments, integrating it with legacy systems might require additional effort. However, the solution is generally praised for its ease of deployment and minimal impact on existing architectures.

In summary, Signal Sciences’ performance and accuracy are highly regarded due to its advanced SmartParse technology, high automation levels, and ability to scale across various environments. While there are some limitations, such as cost transparency and potential integration challenges with legacy systems, the overall feedback from customers and industry analysts is very positive.

Signal Sciences - Pricing and Plans

Pricing Structure for Signal Sciences

The pricing structure for Signal Sciences, which is integrated with Fastly’s web application and API protection packages, is not explicitly outlined in the publicly available information. Here are some key points to consider:

Pricing Not Publicly Available

Signal Sciences does not make its pricing publicly available. This means you would need to contact their sales team to get a quote specific to your needs.

Cost Reduction

It is mentioned that Signal Sciences can significantly reduce costs compared to traditional WAF solutions. This is achieved through the use of their SmartParse technology, which eliminates the need for managed service fees, costly installation and onboarding, as well as manual rule tuning and configuration. Reportedly, their WAF solution can be one third to one half the cost of more traditional WAF pricing models.

Features Across Plans

While the specific pricing tiers are not detailed, here are some features that Signal Sciences offers:

Protection across various environments including containers, hybrid environments, and standard cloud setups.
Agentless operation, applying both managed and custom rulesets to application traffic.
Protections extend beyond the OWASP Top 10, including defense against botnet attacks, account takeovers, credential stuffing, API abuse, and DDoS mitigation.
Use of the proprietary SmartParse system, which leverages artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis.
User-friendly Power Rules for configuring WAFs without complicated scripting or regex modifications.

Integration with Fastly

Signal Sciences is also integrated into Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF offerings. Fastly provides various packages with different pricing, but these packages are more related to the broader Fastly services rather than the specific Signal Sciences WAF pricing. For example, Fastly offers packages starting at $1,500 per month for smaller businesses and scaling up to custom enterprise plans, but these do not directly reflect the pricing of Signal Sciences.

No Free Options for Signal Sciences

There is no indication of a free tier or trial specifically for Signal Sciences. However, Fastly does offer trials for their broader services, which might include some aspects of the Signal Sciences integration.

Conclusion

In summary, for precise pricing details on Signal Sciences, you would need to contact their sales team directly. The product offers advanced features and cost savings but does not provide public pricing information.

Signal Sciences - Integration and Compatibility

Integration Capabilities of Signal Sciences

Integration with Splunk On-Call

Signal Sciences can be integrated with Splunk On-Call to enhance alert management. This integration is compatible with Splunk On-Call’s Starter, Growth, and Enterprise versions. To set it up, you configure the Signal Sciences integration within the Splunk On-Call web portal by selecting the integration option, copying the Service API Endpoint, and pasting it into the Signal Sciences web interface. This allows alerts from Signal Sciences to be forwarded to Splunk On-Call, ensuring that the right people are notified based on on-call schedules.

Integration with Microsoft Azure

Signal Sciences offers advanced protection for applications on Microsoft Azure through its next-gen Web Application Firewall (WAF) and Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP) solution. This integration is fully qualified within the Microsoft Azure certified program and is available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. It provides instant visibility and protection for cloud-native, legacy, and serverless applications on Azure App Service, making it easy to deploy with minimal effort.

Integration with Jira Service Management

Signal Sciences can be integrated with Jira Service Management to forward alerts and ensure the right teams are notified. This integration is API-based and requires a Premium or Enterprise plan for full functionality. You set up the integration by adding it in Jira Service Management, configuring the API key, and testing the integration to ensure alerts are received correctly.

Compatibility Across Platforms

Signal Sciences is compatible with a wide range of platforms, including Microsoft Azure, where it integrates seamlessly with Azure App Service. It also works with other cloud services and can protect applications running on various architectures, including on-premises, cloud-native, and serverless environments. The solution is platform-agnostic, integrating at the platform layer rather than the code layer, which makes it compatible with any application running on Microsoft’s Internet Information Services (IIS) within Azure App Service.

General Compatibility

Signal Sciences provides a unified management system that offers full feature parity across different architectures. This means organizations can deploy Signal Sciences to secure their web applications, APIs, and microservices on any architecture, ensuring comprehensive and scalable threat protection and security visibility.

Conclusion

In summary, Signal Sciences integrates effectively with various tools like Splunk On-Call, Jira Service Management, and platforms such as Microsoft Azure, providing broad compatibility and advanced security features to protect web applications and APIs across different environments.

Signal Sciences - Customer Support and Resources

When using Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF

Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF, now part of the Signal Sciences integration, offers customers several support options and additional resources.

Support Channels

Fastly provides multiple channels for customer support:

Support Portal: Customers can submit support requests online, update existing tickets, and track the status of their support tickets through the support portal.
Email Support: Technical support can be contacted via email at support@fastly.com during standard business hours. All support tickets generated by email are designated with a P2 severity level by default.
Designated Points of Contact: Customers can identify and maintain up to five points of contact for support communications, ensuring that all support requests are initiated and communicated through these designated contacts.

Response Times

The response times for support requests vary based on the severity of the issue and the platform level (Essential, Professional, Premier):

Urgent – Critical Impact (P0): 60 minutes or less with updates every 2 hours for Professional and Premier platforms, and 1 business day with updates every 4 business days for the Essential platform.
High – Serious Impact (P1): 4 business hours with updates every 12 business hours for Professional and Premier platforms, and 1 business day with updates every 4 business days for the Essential platform.
Normal – Minor Impact (P2) and Low – Minor Impact (P3): Response times are 1 business day and 2 business days respectively, with varying update frequencies.

Additional Resources

Documentation and Release Notes: Fastly provides detailed documentation and release notes that include information about updates, error corrections, bug fixes, and software upgrades. Customers can subscribe to receive emails about these updates.
API Integrations: The Fastly Next-Gen WAF offers APIs that allow customers to integrate their applications and services with the WAF, using standard HTTP response codes and verbs. This enables programmatic control over security features.
Threat Intelligence: Fastly’s Network Learning Exchange (NLX) provides threat intelligence by aggregating attack data from various sources, including other subscribers. This helps in detecting and preemptively defending against potential attacks.
SLA and Availability: Fastly maintains a 99.9% availability SLA for the Signal Sciences Hosted Dashboard, with service credits available for any unavailability that falls below this threshold.

Training and Community

While the provided sources do not detail specific training programs or community forums, Fastly’s comprehensive documentation and support channels are designed to help customers effectively use and manage their Next-Gen WAF solutions.

By leveraging these support options and resources, customers can ensure they have the necessary help and information to secure their web applications and APIs effectively.

Signal Sciences - Pros and Cons

Advantages of Signal Sciences

Signal Sciences, now integrated with Fastly, offers several significant advantages in the web application and API security domain:

High Accuracy and Automation

Signal Sciences boasts a high level of accuracy in identifying various types of attacks and malicious behavior, enabled by its unique agent/code module configuration that derives signals directly from the running web application. This accuracy allows for automated response behavior, reducing operating costs and enabling 95% of their customers to run the product in fully automated mode.

Flexibility and Modularity

The technology is highly flexible and modular, capable of addressing any type of hosting environment, including multi-cloud, containers, and on-premises setups. It supports various delivery architectures such as websites, APIs, and microservices.

Advanced Threat Detection

Signal Sciences uses a combination of static patterns and machine learning algorithms to monitor user behavior and intelligently separate legitimate traffic from malicious traffic. This includes protection against SQL injection, cross-site scripting, denial of service attempts, and other sophisticated attacks.

Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP)

The RASP capabilities allow Signal Sciences to embed a code module into the application itself and deploy an agent onto each application server. This provides deep insights and the ability to enforce blocking actions directly within the application, enhancing security without impacting performance.

User-Friendly Interface and Easy Deployment

The platform is known for its sleek and easy-to-use interface, simplifying the setup and implementation process. It can be deployed quickly, with cloud installations taking around five minutes and on-premises setups taking about 10-15 minutes.

Comprehensive API Protection

Signal Sciences offers extensive API protection, monitoring and protecting traffic between critical API endpoints, and addressing OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks. It provides tools for controlling traffic, blocking, allowing, tagging, or rate-limiting API traffic.

Integration and Visibility

The platform includes over 30 integrations with common DevOps and security tools such as Slack, Jira, PagerDuty, Datadog, Splunk, and Cisco Threat Response. It provides real-time reporting capabilities and historical threat data from a single management console.

Cost-Effective

By leveraging its SmartParse technology, Signal Sciences reduces the need for managed service fees, costly installation, and onboarding. This can result in costs that are significantly lower than traditional WAF pricing models.

Disadvantages of Signal Sciences

While Signal Sciences offers numerous advantages, there are a few 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.

Potential Need for Additional Analytics

For some users, the built-in analytics and logging capabilities might not be sufficient for long-term threat hunting. Integrations with SIEM or other third-party storage platforms may be necessary for extended data retention and analysis.

Dependence on Cloud Processing

While the cloud-based processing is a strength, it may also be a limitation for organizations with strict on-premises data handling policies or those in regions with limited cloud connectivity.

Overall, Signal Sciences stands out for its high accuracy, automation capabilities, and user-friendly interface, making it a strong choice for web application and API security. However, potential users should be aware of the limited public pricing information and the possible need for additional analytics tools.

Signal Sciences - Comparison with Competitors

When comparing Signal Sciences with its competitors in the web and mobile application security category, several key points and unique features stand out.

Unique Features of Signal Sciences

Next-Gen WAF Technology: Signal Sciences is recognized for its innovative next-generation Web Application Firewall (WAF) solution. It is praised for its ease of use and strong technical capabilities, which set it apart from traditional WAF solutions. This technology is particularly effective in protecting web applications, APIs, and microservices against a wide range of threats, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and account takeovers.
Customer Satisfaction and Industry Recognition: Signal Sciences has been named a Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Web Application Firewalls for multiple years, indicating high customer satisfaction. It was also recognized as a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Application Firewalls.
Integration with Fastly: Since its acquisition by Fastly, Signal Sciences benefits from integration with Fastly’s content delivery network (CDN) and edge cloud platform, providing a more comprehensive security solution that combines protection with performance optimization.

Competitors and Alternatives

reCAPTCHA Enterprise

Market Share: reCAPTCHA Enterprise holds a significant market share of 42.61% in the web and mobile application security category.
Focus: It is primarily known for its bot detection and prevention capabilities, which are crucial for protecting against automated attacks.
Difference: Unlike Signal Sciences, reCAPTCHA Enterprise is more focused on user verification and bot mitigation rather than a full-spectrum WAF solution.

WordFence

Market Share: WordFence has a market share of 40.42%, making it another major player.
Focus: It is particularly popular among WordPress users, offering a comprehensive security plugin that includes firewall protection, malware scanning, and other security features.
Difference: WordFence is more specialized in WordPress security, whereas Signal Sciences provides a broader range of protection for various web applications and APIs.

Imperva

Market Share: Imperva holds a market share of 5.62%.
Focus: Imperva offers a range of security solutions including WAF, DDoS protection, and database security.
Difference: Imperva’s solutions are often more complex and may require more configuration compared to Signal Sciences’ user-friendly approach.

Other Notable Alternatives

Mimecast Web Security

Focus: Mimecast is known for its email security solutions but also offers web security services that protect against web-based threats.
Difference: Mimecast’s web security is more focused on email and web gateway protection rather than the comprehensive WAF solution offered by Signal Sciences.

Cisco IronPort

Focus: Cisco IronPort provides web and email security solutions, including WAF capabilities.
Difference: Cisco IronPort’s solutions are often part of a larger security suite and may be more integrated with other Cisco products, which could be beneficial for organizations already using Cisco solutions.

AI-Driven Security Tools

While Signal Sciences is not primarily an AI-driven security tool, some competitors and alternatives in the broader cybersecurity market are leveraging AI extensively. For example:

Darktrace: Known for its autonomous response technology that interrupts cyber-attacks in real-time using AI.
SentinelOne: Offers fully autonomous cybersecurity powered by AI, focusing on endpoint security and threat prevention.

These AI-driven tools offer advanced threat detection and response capabilities but may not replace the specific WAF and web application security features provided by Signal Sciences.

In summary, Signal Sciences stands out for its innovative WAF technology, ease of use, and strong industry recognition. While competitors like reCAPTCHA Enterprise, WordFence, and Imperva offer different strengths, Signal Sciences’ integration with Fastly and its comprehensive protection make it a strong choice for organizations needing robust web and mobile application security.

Signal Sciences - Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions about the Fastly Next-Gen WAF

What is the Fastly Next-Gen WAF and how does it protect my applications and APIs?

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF is a web application and API protection (WAAP) solution that provides advanced security for your applications, APIs, and microservices. It deploys flexibly in any environment, whether in containers, on-prem, in the cloud, or on the edge, and protects against various threats, including OWASP Top 10 attacks and advanced web attacks.

How does the Fastly Next-Gen WAF differ from traditional WAFs?

Unlike traditional WAFs that use regex-based pattern matching, the Fastly Next-Gen WAF employs SmartParse, a highly accurate detection method that evaluates the context of each request to identify malicious or anomalous payloads. This approach reduces false positives and simplifies the setup process.

What features does the Fastly Next-Gen WAF offer for API security?

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF provides comprehensive API protection, including monitoring and blocking traffic between critical API endpoints, protecting against OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks, and supporting various API protocols such as SOAP, REST, gRPC, WebSockets, and GraphQL. It also offers rate limiting, customizable rules, and real-time insights into API traffic patterns and attack behavior.

How does the SmartParse technology work?

SmartParse is a proprietary technology developed by Signal Sciences that uses artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis to monitor traffic and understand the context of each request. It tokenizes request payloads rather than relying on regex pattern matching, which makes it highly accurate in detecting malicious or anomalous traffic.

Does the Fastly Next-Gen WAF require extensive setup and tuning?

No, the Fastly Next-Gen WAF is designed to be a ‘set it and forget it’ solution. It requires near-zero tuning to protect APIs and start detecting threats immediately, thanks to its default rules set and SmartParse technology. This makes it easier for teams to implement and maintain without extensive configuration or rule tuning.

How does the Fastly Next-Gen WAF handle rate limiting and traffic control?

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF includes advanced rate limiting features that stop malicious and anomalous high-volume web requests, reduce web server and API utilization, and allow legitimate traffic to pass through. It also allows for customizable rules to block, allow, tag, or rate limit API traffic based on the context of the requests.

Is the Fastly Next-Gen WAF compatible with various environments and architectures?

Yes, the Fastly Next-Gen WAF is highly flexible and can deploy in any environment, including containers, on-premises, cloud, or edge environments. It supports a mix of applications and differing architectures, making it a unified solution for diverse deployment needs.

How does the Fastly Next-Gen WAF integrate with DevOps and security toolchains?

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF integrates natively with popular gateways, web servers, and other DevOps and security tools. It encourages the sharing and correlation of data, simplifies automation, and supports programmatic control over security workflows through APIs.

What kind of support and pricing models are available for the Fastly Next-Gen WAF?

The pricing for the Fastly Next-Gen WAF is not publicly detailed, but it is reportedly more cost-effective than traditional WAF solutions, often being one third to one half the cost. It eliminates the need for managed service fees and costly installation and onboarding. For specific pricing, you would need to contact Fastly sales.

How does the Fastly Next-Gen WAF handle bad bots and automated traffic?

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF can identify and mitigate bad bots before they negatively impact your website or API. It also prevents malicious automated traffic by blocking abusive traffic when defined thresholds are met, ensuring your apps remain available and responsive.

What kind of visibility and reporting does the Fastly Next-Gen WAF provide?

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF offers real-time event details through self-service dashboards, intelligent alerting, and powerful reporting. It provides at-a-glance dashboards and the ability to view individual requests, giving you comprehensive visibility into API traffic patterns and attack behavior.

Signal Sciences - Conclusion and Recommendation

Final Assessment of Signal Sciences

Signal Sciences, now integrated into Fastly’s offerings, stands out as a formidable player in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) and application security space. Here’s a comprehensive look at its key capabilities and who would benefit most from using it.

Key Capabilities

Advanced Detection and Blocking

Signal Sciences’ proprietary detection method, SmartParse, enables instantaneous decisions to block anomalous traffic without disrupting legitimate user access. This technology reduces the need for constant signature tuning and minimizes false positives, a common issue with other WAFs.

Multi-Environment Support

The solution is highly flexible and can be deployed in various hosting environments, including multi-cloud, containers, and on-premise setups. This flexibility makes it suitable for a wide range of applications and architectures.

Automated Response

With a high level of accuracy in identifying malicious behavior, Signal Sciences can automate response actions, significantly lowering operational costs. A notable 95% of their customers run the product in fully automated mode.

Multi-Layer Defense

When combined with Fastly’s edge cloud platform, Signal Sciences offers a multi-layer defense strategy that includes rate limiting, bot mitigation, API protection, and DDoS protection. This integrated approach provides comprehensive security against various types of attacks.

Real-Time Security

The integration with Fastly’s edge cloud allows for real-time detection and blocking of suspicious traffic. This capability is crucial for mitigating attacks quickly and effectively.

Who Would Benefit Most

Developers and DevOps Teams

The developer-friendly and programmable nature of Signal Sciences makes it an ideal solution for teams that need to integrate security seamlessly into their development cycles. It allows for real-time rule updates and automated security decisions, which are particularly beneficial in rapid development environments.

Security Teams

Organizations with dedicated security teams will appreciate the advanced detection capabilities, reduced false positives, and the ability to enforce security policies at the edge. This helps in maintaining a strong security posture without disrupting legitimate traffic.

Businesses with High Traffic

Companies handling large volumes of traffic, especially those in e-commerce, finance, and other high-traffic sectors, will benefit from Signal Sciences’ ability to absorb large DDoS attacks and protect against various types of web application attacks.

Overall Recommendation

Signal Sciences, as part of Fastly’s security offerings, is highly recommended for organizations seeking advanced, automated, and scalable web application and API protection. Its unique capabilities in reducing false positives, supporting multi-environment deployments, and providing real-time security make it a valuable asset for any business looking to enhance its security posture.

Given its strong integration with Fastly’s edge cloud platform, Signal Sciences offers a comprehensive security solution that can adapt to various business needs, making it an excellent choice for businesses aiming to protect their applications and APIs effectively.