What is Cloudflare and how it protects website?

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Cloudflare is a service that provides a variety of security and performance enhancements for websites.

Reverse proxy

It works by acting as a reverse proxy for web traffic, routing requests through its global network of servers before they reach the origin server that hosts a website.

This allows Cloudflare to provide a number of benefits, including protection against various types of online attacks, improved website performance, and enhanced security for sensitive data.

DDoS protection

One of the key ways in which Cloudflare protects websites is by providing DDoS protection. DDoS, or distributed denial of service, is a type of cyber attack in which a website is flooded with a large amount of traffic from multiple sources in an attempt to overwhelm the server and make the website unavailable.

Cloudflare uses a variety of techniques to detect and mitigate DDoS attacks, such as rate limiting, traffic shaping, and IP blocking. This helps to ensure that the origin server is not overwhelmed by traffic and that legitimate users can still access the website.

Web application firewall (WAF)

Another way Cloudflare protects websites is through its built-in web application firewall (WAF). A WAF is a security measure that inspects incoming traffic to a website and blocks any requests that are identified as malicious.

This can include things like SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, and other types of exploits that are commonly used to gain unauthorized access to a website or steal sensitive information.

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Cloudflare’s WAF is updated with new rules on an ongoing basis to ensure that it can protect against the latest types of attacks.

Performance enhancement

In addition to these security features, Cloudflare also provides a number of performance enhancements for websites.

One of the primary ways it does this is through its content delivery network (CDN). A CDN is a network of servers that are distributed around the world and are used to cache and serve content from a website.

By routing traffic through the nearest available server, Cloudflare can reduce the amount of time it takes for a page to load. This is particularly useful for websites that receive traffic from all over the world, as it ensures that users can access the website quickly regardless of their location.

Other features

Cloudflare also provides a variety of other features that can improve the performance of a website.

For example, it offers built-in image optimization, which can reduce the file size of images without sacrificing quality, as well as minification of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML. This can help to reduce the amount of data that needs to be loaded by a browser, which in turn speeds up the website.

Always Online

Cloudflare also provides a feature called Always Onlineā„¢, that keep your website online even if the origin server goes down, that feature uses a cached version of your website and serve it to visitors even if your website is down.

HTTPS encryption & SSL certificates

Finally, Cloudflare also provides security enhancements for sensitive data. For example, it supports HTTPS encryption by default, which ensures that all data transmitted between a user’s browser and the website is encrypted. Additionally, it also provides SSL certificates that can be used to secure connections to a website.

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In summary, Cloudflare is a comprehensive service that provides a wide range of security and performance enhancements for websites. By acting as a reverse proxy for web traffic and routing requests through its global network of servers, it can provide protection against DDoS attacks, improved website performance, and enhanced security for sensitive data.

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