Sophos Certified Engineer 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The primary purpose of a web application firewall (WAF) in Sophos is to protect web applications from various threats and vulnerabilities. A WAF acts as a shield between a web application and the internet, monitoring and filtering both incoming and outgoing traffic. It is designed to detect and block malicious activities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other common web-based attacks that can exploit vulnerabilities in web applications.

By analyzing the data packets exchanged between the client and the server, a WAF can enforce security policies that specifically address the unique characteristics of web application protocols. This proactive protection helps maintain the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the web application, ensuring that sensitive data is safeguarded against unauthorized access or manipulation.

While aspects such as improving website loading times, providing user analytics, and facilitating application development are valuable in the context of web applications, they do not align with the core function of a WAF, which is fundamentally about security. Therefore, protecting web applications from threats and vulnerabilities is the key role that defines a WAF's utility in the Sophos ecosystem.