Radware launches new device fingerprinting technology to mitigate malicious bot attacks

Radware, provider of cyber security and application delivery solutions ensuring optimal service level for applications in virtual, cloud and software defined data centres, has announced enhanced protection from threats posed by advanced bots through its Attack Mitigation System. This major enhancement now gives Radware customers the ability to track end user devices without the need for Internet Protocol (IP) address. Fingerprinting technology is used to precisely identify application users or website visitors who have a history of malicious behaviour, and are often part of a botnet.

Many of today's most severe security threats leverage bots and other traffic sources that can avoid detection by mimicking user behaviour, dynamically changing the source IP addresses or operating behind anonymous proxies and content delivery networks.

Businesses that conduct a high volume of online transactions are plagued by bots that can exhaust application resources, scrape sensitive information from websites illegitimately and seek vulnerabilities through application logic abuse. In order to protect applications from advanced bots or even collective human threats, website operators need more advanced user/client identification that can detect and block illegitimate users.

To help combat this threat, Radware's Attack Mitigation System has been enhanced with technology that can track and precisely detect malicious end user devices regardless of the source IP address. Device fingerprinting implemented in Radware's Attack Mitigation System suite uses dozens of characteristics of the device in a unique way to identify and distinguish it from all others. Using proprietary tracking, Radware can generate device reputational profiles that combine both historical behavioural information aiding in the detection and mitigation of threats such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), intrusions and fraudsters alike.

"We have reached a point where the IP address has limited effectiveness as a means of identifying and blocking illegitimate users," says Ben Desjardins, director of security solutions for Radware. "With the proliferation of devices driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) and users operating multiple mobile devices more than ever before, the challenge of device identification continues to increase exponentially. Our device fingerprinting technology gives online businesses a powerful tool in combating the threats posed by the difficulties of accurate device and user detection."

Accurate device-level identification allows for effective protection from traffic that can elude IP address based security measures. This includes malicious traffic coming through content delivery networks (CDNs) with whitelisted IPs, traffic using dynamic hosting configuration that results in a new IP address each time they access the Internet. Device fingerprinting can also improve identification of malicious users accessing the Internet through Network Address Translation (NAT) devices that result in many devices sharing the same IP address, and anonymous proxy services that make it difficult to block IPs without potentially blocking legitimate users/devices.

Device fingerprinting further bolsters the Radware Attack Mitigation System, an award-winning solution to protect an enterprise's infrastructure against network and application downtime, application vulnerability exploitation, malware spread, network anomalies, information theft and other types of attack.