F5 Networks has launched a new advanced firewall offering for comprehensive application protection.

The firm’s Advanced Firewall Application features a raft of security capabilities designed to guard against evolving application threats.

“Recent research from F5 Labs revealed that applications are the initial targets in the majority of breaches, suggesting that any app can be an attack vector,” said Ram Krishnan, SVP and general manager of the Security business unit at F5. “Cybercriminals are using sophisticated application-layer exploits, as well as an emerging wave of automated, bot and IoT-based threats that are quite capable of evading simple signature or reputation-based detection.

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The company’s 2017 Lessons learned from a decade of data breaches report* showed that from 2016 to 2017, cyber attacks on web apps jumped 22 per cent. In addition, the study found that six billion records were exposed in the first six months of 2017, and that 51 per cent of all breaches in 2016 involved some type of malware.

“F5 offers the most complete application protection, with Advanced WAF [web application firewall] as a foundational technology that can be deployed, managed, and consumed in the manner that best suits our customers,” Krishnan added.

F5 said the launch formed part of a push to beef up its growing portfolio of integrated and standalone services specifically developed for app security. “Advanced WAF supports a variety of consumption and licensing models, including a per-app basis, as well as perpetual, subscription, and utility billing options for ultimate flexibility in the cloud and the data center,” the firm said.

“This helps SecOps better collaborate with modern DevOps and NetOps teams to easily deploy app protection services in any environment that can be configured for individual applications or en masse,” F5 Network added.

Key features include:

  • Comprehensive mitigation of web and mobile bot threats
  • Layer 7 DDoS detection using machine learning and behavioral analytics for high accuracy
  • Advanced protection against credential theft and abuse

* F5 Labs researched 433 breach cases spanning 12 years, 37 industries, and 27 countries to discover patterns in the initial attacks that lead to the breach