Web can be an easy target of cyber terrorism. Attackers might not just deform websites to reveal the messages that they want to deliver, but also penetrate a web server through the website to steal valued information and move to other critical system connected to web server. They can also insert malicious links and infect the devices of visitors by changing web pages.

Against this background, web application firewalls are essential to stop such cyber-attacks. Recently, attackers are attacking web sites by inserting malicious codes hidden in SSL encryption traffic. In order to defend websites from such attacks, companies should have “next-generation web application firewall” with SSL visibility.

PIOLINK Web Application Firewall Project Manager Yoon, Dong-kyu said that “It is the time when we need “next-generation web application firewall” to protect HTTP 2.0. In the future, most traffic will use SSL and the current web firewalls will not be able to block future attacks. In particular, companies need to install intelligent, high-performing web application firewalls to protect their websites from possible cyber-attacks in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games next month”.

More enterprises are adopting web firewall.

In Korea, the web application firewalls have protected local web sites by removing OWASP Top 10 risks and 8 major risks selected by National Intelligence Service in Korea, and blocking the access of unauthorized clients. Such web firewalls were used mostly by public organizations that had strict security requirements. Only few private companies adopted the web application firewalls as they were concerned about possible degradation of website performance.

However, as web is now being considered as a security hole and the web-based attacks are becoming sophisticated, the demand for next-generation web application firewalls is expected to rise. In particular, with the increasing use of multimedia such as video, the installation of high-performance web firewall that is capable of processing heavy traffic became inevitable.

Project Manager Yoon, Dong-kyu said that “the web application firewalls make sure that the availability of web services should not be affected by blocking increasingly intelligent cyber-attack. High-performance web firewall enabling SSL decryption only can safely defend websites”.

In Korea, WAPPLES launched by Penta Security System, a Seoul-based IT security firm, accounts for the largest share of web firewall market, followed by PIOLINK’s WEBFRONT-K and MONITORAPP’s WEB Insight. Even though global leading web firewall providers such as Imperva, Citrix, F5 Networks and Barracuda launched their services in Korean market, they cannot overcome the high barriers of local solutions.

However, it is hard to guarantee that the local solution will continue to maintain its competitiveness with the beginning of ‘next-generation’ paradigm. As the previous case of next-generation firewall showed, companies that are complacent with customers’ high loyalty and obsessed with competing for “speed”, not “security” will eventually lose its market share.

Project Manager Yoon said that “A web firewall is supposed to control and protect a web application. That is why ADC providers are showing a strong performance in global market with their high expertise in application process. From this viewpoint, PIOLINK is highly competitive. We can use our independently designed and manufactured hardware platform to launch 20Gbps devices, the best performing one in Korea. RSA 2048 decryption is possible even without performance degradation”.

The performance is critical for web application firewalls, since the environment where loads of traffic inhibits potential performance of web application firewalls can cause disruption to web services. In cloud environment, the importance of high-performing web firewalls is rising.

Basically, cloud service is web-based, which means that cloud is likely to be the target of cyber-attack. When large-scale cyber-attack occurs and the performance of web firewalls is not strong enough to protect cloud, there will be serious disruption and damages to cloud services.

Project Manager Yoon said that “At the time of international events such as Olympic Games and World Cup Games, the demand for high-performing web application firewalls is rising. When the web traffic soars and cyber-attacks increases, companies finally realize the importance of infrastructure for safer web management. PIOLINK provided reliable solutions to customers that have the needs of safe and high-performing web firewalls, including Kiwoom Securities and CJ Olive Networks. As such, we can attain competitive advantage in the web firewall market at the time when next-generation web application firewalls are introduced soon.