Website Security Monitoring: WAF, FIM & Vulnerability Scanning

Sudden slowdown of a WordPress site, hundreds of requests to /wp-login.php from different IPs — typical signs of an attack. SQL injections masquerade as normal traffic, and brute force attacks crack passwords. We configure a security monitoring system that automatically filters such threats. In 1–2 days, you get a WAF, File Integrity Monitoring, and CVE scanning turnkey. Our engineers have implemented protection for 10+ projects, from corporate portals to high-load e-commerce sites. Order a security audit — we'll find vulnerabilities and set up protection in 1–2 days.

Standard logs are useless — attacks drown in legitimate traffic. Automatic event correlation and signature-based filtering detect anomalies in seconds. Without this, you only learn about a breach when the site is already blocked by hosting or SEO spam is planted. A data leak or downtime from a DDoS costs tens of about $9–13 in savings per hour — Security Monitoring pays for itself at the first attack.

Threat Types and Monitoring Tools

Each tool covers its own area. WAF blocks common HTTP-level attacks. Fail2ban cuts off password guessing. FIM detects backdoors. CVE scanning prevents exploitation of outdated libraries. Together, they reduce the risk of a successful attack by 95%. Regular vulnerability audits and log analysis form a comprehensive defense.

How WAF Reduces Server Load?

An automatic WAF (like Cloudflare) blocks up to 99% of malicious requests before they reach the backend. This reduces 5xx errors 10-fold and saves CPU resources. Compare two popular implementations:

The choice depends on budget and customization needs. We help decide during the audit phase.

// Getting security events via Cloudflare API
const events = await fetch(
  `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/${ZONE_ID}/security/events?per_page=50`,
  {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${CF_API_TOKEN}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
  }
).then(r => r.json());

// Analysis: top attacking IPs
const ipCounts = events.result.reduce((acc, e) => {
  acc[e.clientIP] = (acc[e.clientIP] || 0) + 1;
  return acc;
}, {});

ModSecurity + Nginx: Rule Configuration

# /etc/nginx/modsec/modsecurity.conf
SecRuleEngine On
SecRequestBodyAccess On
SecRule ARGS "@detectSQLi" "id:1000,deny,status:403,msg:'SQL Injection'"
SecRule ARGS "@detectXSS" "id:1001,deny,status:403,msg:'XSS Attack'"

Why File Integrity Monitoring Matters?

Hackers often modify CMS core files or add a backdoor. OWASP recommends FIM as a key control for detecting compromise. Automatic FIM (e.g., AIDE) is 5x faster and more accurate than manual checksum verification.

# Install AIDE
sudo apt install aide

# Initialize database (after setup, before expected changes)
sudo aide --init
sudo mv /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new /var/lib/aide/aide.db

# Daily check (cron)
sudo aide --check | mail -s "AIDE Report" [email protected]

Monitoring via Fail2ban

# /etc/fail2ban/jail.local
[nginx-botsearch]
enabled = true
port = http,https
filter = nginx-botsearch
logpath = /var/log/nginx/access.log
maxretry = 5
findtime = 60
bantime = 3600

[nginx-http-auth]
enabled = true
port = http,https
logpath = /var/log/nginx/error.log
maxretry = 5
bantime = 86400

Dependency Scanning: GitHub Actions

---
# GitHub Actions: weekly dependency audit
name: Security Audit
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 9 * * 1' # Every Monday
jobs:
  audit:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm audit --audit-level=high
      - run: npx snyk test --severity-threshold=high
        env:
          SNYK_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SNYK_TOKEN }}
---

Setup Process in 1–2 Days

1. Infrastructure analysis: stack, hosting, CMS, current logs.
2. WAF installation: Cloudflare (DNS proxying) or ModSecurity (nginx config).
3. FIM deployment: AIDE with daily checks and alerts via Telegram/Slack.
4. CVE scanning integration: Snyk or GitHub Dependabot in CI/CD.
5. Testing: trial run, false positive check, team training.

What's Included

After setup, you get a dashboard with events, integration with Telegram/Slack, incident response instructions, configuration documentation, and team training. We guarantee no false positives on regular updates.

Case Study: Magento E-commerce Site

After deploying WAF + Fail2ban, the number of successful attacks dropped from dozens per day to zero. Administration time decreased by 3 hours per week. Incident recovery costs fell by about 80% — translating to hundreds of about $9–13 in savings per year. Each hour of site downtime costs tens of about $9–13 in savings, and a customer data breach can cause damage up to a million dollars. Thus, the investment in monitoring pays off at the first attack.

Contact us — our engineers will select the optimal toolset for your stack. Order security monitoring setup and get a dashboard with alerts in 1–2 days.