Web servers and databases are the primary target of hacking for political and criminal intent, and yet many IT infrastructures are left without adequate protection. As we continue to move core business functions to Web-enabled services for both internal and external users and customers, many of us falsely assume these servers can benefit from the same type of protection as any other network server.

As illustrated below, a good Web security architecture instead includes a wide spectrum of defenses. HYDRA fills gaps in every band of the spectrum, and used alongside your people, processes and existing products, can bring Web environments to a security posture that was previously thought to be unachievable.

spectrum

Firewalls, IDS/IPS
While your existing IDS looks for anomalous network activity, HYDRA will do the same and more for Web traffic. With digitally signed auth and intrusion attempt logging, HYDRA becomes your Web IDS. And by blocking and/or logging malformed protocol or app-level requests, HYDRA also serves as your Web IPS. With basic IP tunneling and NAT capabilities, HYDRA also can also augment your current firewall.

Policy Enforcement
By allowing you to easily define rules for each Web Application server, HYDRA effectively enforces your security policy, and blocks unauthorized (or unknown) Web servers. By enabling all filters in log-only mode, HYDRA can help define your application-level security policy by reporting unsafe practices. Once you mitigate them in your apps, you can then block subsequent similar requests.

App/Content Assurance
Unique among network appliances, HYDRA is based on a hard real-time embedded operating system rather than hardened Linux, Windows, or BSD. The small 1.5 MB of firmware has been hand-crafted from scratch to be both more stable and more secure than larger, more complex systems. This brings a higher trust level not only to the operations HYDRA performs, but the content it both delivers or proxies.

By defending against network, protocol, and application attacks, HYDRA provides a wide breadth and depth of assurances. For more information click on the sub-items in the menu at right, Download one of our whitepapers, or Contact Us directly.