Imperva Review: The Future of Cyber Security

Imperva Review: The Future of Cyber Security
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Trust
Our Rating
4.8 / 5
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Price Plans

  • Free

  • Pro: $59/mo

  • Business: $229/mo

  • Enterprise: Contact Company

Free Version

No

Free Trial

Yes
  • Web-Based

  • Credit Card

Starter package

Free

Imperva Review: In-Depth

Imperva is a cybersecurity leader that protects its customers’ business information from hackers and malicious attacks. With an enterprise-grade Web Application Firewall, the company implements vital tools to enhance user experience even in 2023.

The software monitors all the subscribers’ actual databases and provides carrier-grade protection to high traffic websites alongside commercial and small sites. By blocking malicious bots, individuals can intelligently control incoming traffic in real-time. This way, outgoing traffic is optimized to increase the speed of the website.

Key Features

  • Multiple Site Support
  • Reliability and Control
  • Content Delivery Network 
  • Custom SSL
  • Business Grade Website Security 
  • PCI compliant
  • Accelerated Website Speed by 40%
  • Cache Purging
  • Static Content Caching

Imperva Review: Background Information

Imperva Background Information

Imperva, formerly known as WEBcohort, was founded in 2002 by Shlomo Kramer, Amichal Shulman, and Mickey Boodei. In 2003, the company shipped its first product, SecureSphere web application database protection. As of 2004, it changed its name to Imperva Incapsula. 

Presently, its headquarters is in San Mateo, CA, USA. It has over 6,200 customers across 150 countries and 1,200+ employees. In 2023, it launched a Cyber Thread Index. Plus, it generates a revenue of $100 to $500 million yearly. 

  • Owner: Thomas Bravo
  • CEO: Pam Murphy 
  • Award: 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for web application firewall (WAF) Lead 
  • Company Type: Public
  • It was listed on the New York stock exchange and went public in 2011.

Features In Details

As an IT company, Imperva’s sole purpose is to provide its subscribers with tools to run their websites securely. To achieve this, it implements vital features to minimize website attacks and reduce risks. 

Incapsula Web Application Firewall

This application creates a barrier between the internet and a website. It protects the customer’s information by monitoring and filtering the HTTP traffic. Then, it helps to block attacks and protect sensitive data. 

The web application firewall ensures the users run through it before reaching the server to protect it from exposure. 

  • It blocks over 600 million threats per day.
  • It provides website analytics and reports.
  • It has flexible deployment alternatives.

DDoS Protection

Imperva DDoS Protection

This tool protects all the client’s information and offers uninterrupted operation. It monitors visitors to the website. If it notices any illegitimate traffic, it will block the passage immediately. Generally, it ensures that users’ businesses run with guaranteed uptime.

  • It minimizes downtime by 99.9%.
  • It has a speed of 6/Tbps/65 billion packets per second.
  • It provides a 3-second reduction SLA against any threat. 
  • It integrates with the security information and event management tool (SIEM).

Runtime Application Self-Security

This feature safeguards all the user’s website applications by detecting malicious attacks in real-time. It works to prevent vulnerability exploitation from web marauders. 

Below are some attacks it wards off:

  • Path Traversal
  • Invalid Redirects 
  • Clickjacking
  • Malformed Content Types
  • Huge Requests 

API Protection

Imperva API Protection

The API protection safeguards the client’s APIs with a computerized positive safeguarding model. It prevents the misuse of the subscriber’s APIs by discovering weak home spots and guarding them against exploitation. 

Some other characteristics of the tool are:

  • Analytics platform and complete insights. 
  • It removes the misuse of APIs.
  • It has automated Open API specifics.
  • It creates a rigid model of behavior for every API.

Refined Bot Protection

This feature secures the client’s mobile applications, APIs, and mission-critical websites from automated attacks. It does that without interrupting the website’s traffic flow.

Likewise, it defends customers against the transaction and clicks frauds, spam, and account takeover. It achieves all these by using a unique approach to control both legit and bad bot traffic. 

Some key capabilities of this tool include:

  • It mitigates every OWASP threat.
  • It shows a best-in-class security solution.
  • The tool gives attentive service against bots.
  • It provides industry expertise that solves bots’ troubles.

Threat Analytics

The threat analytics tool uses machine learning algorithms and AI to detect application attacks on home sites. This tool enables the user’s website to mitigate and respond to real safety threats decisively and quickly. It helps to speed up the investigation of Incapsula WAF alerts. That saves surveillance teams the stress of filtering through several information breaches. 

Its other functions characteristics:

  • This tool is cloud-based for quick deployment. 
  • It provides centralized monitoring of on-premises web application firewall (WAF).
  • It gives unified intelligence from a broad user base.
  • It also filters thousands of incidents into actionable insights. 

Safe CDN

Imperva Safe CDN

Website applications deployed without protection are open to various cyber-attacks and fraudulent activities. The content delivery network (CDN) operates behind the scenes by speeding web traffic, enhancing user experience, and designing how information is received online. With these, it offers the website the ability to go global. 

Subscribers can use the CDN to accelerate:

  • Third-party apps
  • Legacy and active applications
  • Microservices and API
  • Cloud apps

Customer-Side Protection 

This tool protects the user’s documents from theft through client-side attacks like supply chain attacks, form-jacking, Magecart, and digital skimming. It gives businesses visibility and control over any third-party JavaScript code implanted into their web applications. 

It also allows the clients to perform the following:

  • Block invalid domains
  • Approve legitimate domains
  • Maintain control over hostile JavaScript services. 
  • Secure one-click onboarding.
  • Discover third-party tools on the website.

Cloud Data Protection

Imperva Cloud Data Protection

This tool provides customers with real-time visibility of their cloud data. The offer accompanies automated classification, delivery, and insights that reduce file breaching risks. Besides that, it secures information stored in a cloud-based database-as-a-service (DBaaS) without restricting the company’s activities. 

Its crucial capabilities are:

  • Efficient monitoring of activities with a unified, user-friendly dashboard.
  • Audit reporting facilities.
  • Compliance with data privacy.
  • Safety regulations.

Incapsula Database Protection

With this tool, individuals can keep their customer’s trust and uphold their company’s reputation. It discovers, classifies, and detects the vulnerability of databases on the network. It also helps enterprises to lessen the risk of information breaches by locating sensitive assets. 

Some of its benefits are:

  • Identifying hazardous information activities for all customers. 
  • Prevent attacks with static info masking.
  • Detecting unnoticed risks with file discovery and vulnerability assessment. 
  • Prioritizing threats with AI and behavior analytics. 
  • Overseeing and auditing database activities. 

Information Risk Analytics 

As a critical feature, risk analytics offers insights that can be solved immediately. It eliminates and detects non-compliant data access behavior across an organization’s database. The tool builds a dependent behavior baseline by analyzing data passage activities and the user’s behavior. That enables it to identify threats to a website. 

  • It runs speedy investigations and responses.
  • The analytics uncover suspicious user info access.
  • It uses AI to detect critical incidents among audit events. 

Camouflage Information Masking

Imperva Incapsula information masking is a unique and efficient tool for protecting users’ documents. It allows businesses to share or use the information without exposing their sensitive details. It does that by replacing such delicate details with fictional but realistic values. This way, organizations can operate optimally without fear of breaches. 

Other benefits of camouflage information masking include:

  • It complies with security regulations.
  • It helps individuals to gain visibility into places with delicate information.
  • It automatically classifies sensitive documents.

Imperva Vulnerability Assessment

This tool systematically reviews the weak spots in an information system. It checks if the website is susceptible to any hidden and known weak spots. Besides that, it remedies them if necessary. 

Below are several types of assessment:

  • Host assessment
  • Data system assessment 
  • Web application scans
  • Wireless and network assessment 

Information Header

The application sends necessary notifications to subscribers’ email addresses. These messages report account and billing activities, threat alerts, weekly reports, etc.

Imperva Plans & Pricing

Imperva Plans

The software offers various plans for all budgets ranging from small enterprises to large organizations. It guarantees its clients that all its packages are cost-efficient, secure, and easily integrated into their applications.

However, the price is custom, and the software provider only supplies its rates. Nevertheless, prospective clients can contact customer service for their quotes and packages.

Since it’s pricing is unavailable, listed below are Incapsula plans and features.

FlexProtect Pro Plan

This plan precisely safeguards its subscribers’ applications. It is easy and straightforward to integrate. Plus, it delivers an effective safety service.

FlexProtect Plus Plan

This package offers a complete application and information safety. It allows individuals to deploy safety measures when and where they need them on their websites or in the cloud.

FlexProtect Premier Plan

FlexProtect Premier is an upgrade of the Plus plan. It provides customers with maximum application safety that the software can offer.

Data Secure Plan

Imperva recently added this plan to its services to improve its user experience. It protects information by accessing its vulnerability. It then classifies it to protect subscribers’ rights.

Data 360 Plan

Data 360 maximizes the value of the customer’s file security with analytics, correlation, and automation. It comes with flexible analysis and shows compliance wherever it has an integration.

Price & Key Features Comparison Table

The company identifies some key features with particular packages, which enable individuals to select a plan that meets their demand. However, people can fully enjoy their functionality with its FlexProtect Premier. The package provides subscribers with a blend of data and application services. 

Compiled below is a table of its numerous features.

FlexProtect Pro FlexProtect Plus  FlexProtect Premier  Data Secure Data 360
API Security  Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SIEM Integration  Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Attack/Behavior Analytics  Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Advanced Bot/ Data Protection  No No Yes Yes Yes
Client-Side Protection  No No Yes No No
Data Discovery No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Vulnerability Assessment  Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Content Delivery Network  Yes Yes Yes No No
DDoS Protection for Networks No No Yes No No
Integrated Data SOAR No Yes Yes No Yes

Terms & Conditions

The agreement states that by clicking the “Accept” button, the customers agree to all its rules. It also authorizes them not to transfer their rights while using its services to a third party. More, the company only permits its clients to use its logo and name only on their websites.

The document expressly prohibits accessing its service through unauthorized means. It also mandates that individuals provide true and accurate information. 

Warning Heading:

If a user breaches the agreement in its terms of use, the company can discontinue its services without notification or reason.

Privacy Policy

The company gathers the user’s personal information alongside their browsing database. Plus, it combines the information it receives about individuals from a third party. It can only transfer a customer’s information in compliance with the law or its affiliated entities to improve its services.

Imperva may use cookies to allow its systems to recognize individuals’ devices and collect website usage data to enable subscribers to perform their intended functions.

Users can block cookies from devices by changing the appropriate settings on their browser.

Attention Heading:

Third-party sites may also place their cookies on the site and collect or solicit personal information from users.

Refund Policy

Under no circumstances can the company refund a user’s money. In a situation where a client mistakenly subscribes or pays for the wrong plan, the fees will be non-refundable. Hence, the company advises subscribers to choose their packages and mode of payment carefully.

Attention Heading:

Any fees paid are non-refundable. Also, it does not allow individuals to cancel a subscription till it expires.

Customer Support

Imperva Customer Support

Imperva Incapsula uses different channels to attend to its subscribers. It assists with whatever difficulties they may encounter. Unarguably, it’s customer support is flexible. It is accessible to every user from 8 am to 6 pm on workdays. 

Email

Email remains the most popular client messaging medium today. The company provides customers with several emails for different purposes to submit their queries and requests.

Telephone

The company’s website provided several telephone lines for customers calling from different countries. However, its most frequently engaged number is the USA line: +1 (855) 574-9831.

Attention Header

The telephone line is not toll-free. Using it will cost users regular charges peculiar to each region or country.

Online Chat

The company’s website has an online chat button on its home page that asks customers and visitors to leave a message. Through this chat, individuals can mention their complaints and share their personal information for further feedback from a representative.

Support Center

The website has a support center page that contains various help articles. Visitors can read them to understand its features. It also provides users with offline PDFs. If a subscriber still finds the pieces unclear, the support center has a “join the discussion” section below to share comments and interact with other people.

Quality of Service 

The company has over 6,200 individuals with 1,200 plus employees. According to feedback from its customers, it has a rating of 4.7 stars out of 5. That shows that a large number of people enjoy the app and find it satisfactory. Many reviewers described it to be excellent software. Also, sixty-five percent of them referred it to a friend. 

On the other hand, some individuals expressed displeasure and gave it a low rating. The bulk of their complaints centers on its high pricing and complicated setup.


Imperva Pros & Cons

Imperva provides quality services, which makes it stand-out. Reviewers also testify to that. Despite these strengths, the app has some shortcomings.

Pros

Cons

  • The software provides easy configuration of custom security policies.
  • It records all database transactions for analysis.
  • It also blocks dynamic attacks like SQL injection.
  • It is easy to integrate the web application firewall.
  • It adequately protects the web app against critical malicious attacks.
  • It contains smart caches.
  • The quick implementation of SSL.
  • Excellent DDoS protection.
  • The price is high.
  • Its user interface is complicated.
  • Delayed customer support.
  • Less detailed analytics on attacks and traffic.

Imperva Alternatives

Several companies provide users with similar cybersecurity services as Imperva. They contain features that give them a competitive power. This block reviews the top 6.

Cloudflare: Security & Performance Software

Cloudflare accelerates its customers’ site by sharing its contents worldwide, then transmitting it using the best protocols. The software has always set records for reducing the largest DDoS threats. It protects an individual’s website from content scraping through a Web Application Firewall.

Barracuda: Protection Guarantee Application

Barracuda network provides an easy, affordable, and comprehensive way to use firewall solutions for small and big organizations. It protects its client’s email, applications, and cloud from advanced threats. It not only defends the customer’s site, but it also notifies them if there are any attempted attacks.

Akamai: Customizable & Scalable Platform

This load balancing software safeguards people’s sites from any threats and DDoS attacks. It’s a great tool that locks XML layered attacks and automatically monitors and reacts to application-layer threats. Besides, its dashboard allows users to manage attacks in real-time.

F5: Simple Tool for Quality Protection

The F5 has a robust firewall infrastructure. It gives organizations the ability to control the traffic that passes through their network. It also provides its individuals with full visibility and the power to inspect and encrypt and decrypt attacks on their applications. Moreover, individuals can easily integrate these services into their websites.

Securi: Fast App for Assured Safety

This software fixes hacks and prevents future DDoS attacks. It identifies indicators of threats with several alerting options. Moreover, it offers lightning-fast page speed with its highly optimized CDN. Sucuri allows its customers’ site to stay afloat of any attacks.

Qualys: Vulnerability Management

This company delivers cloud protection and compliance-related services to its subscribers. It makes it easy for people to safeguard their network. Besides, it identifies critical changes and risks resulting from regular or malicious events. Qualys continuously assesses and monitors the user’s cloud assets and resources.

Service Alternatives Pricing & Features Comparison

It can be time-consuming for organizations to determine the various security services of the website protection tools available. Thus, the table below highlights the prices and components of these alternatives. 

Imperva Cloudflare Barracuda  Akamai F5 Sucuri Qualys
Basic Plan per Month  $59 $20 Custom $350 Custom $9.99 $500
DDoS Protection  Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Content Delivery Network  Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Analytics/Reporting Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
Vulnerability Assessment  Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
Risk Management  No No No Yes Yes No Yes
Alerts/Notifications  No Yes No No No Yes No
Uptime Reporting Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No
VPN No Yes No No No No Yes

FAQ Section

  • Is Imperva a Public Company?

    It is a public company. As of 2004, it was still a private firm. However, in 2011, it went public and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2019, a private leading equity firm owned by Thomas Bravo acquired it, and its shareholders approved this acquisition.

  • What is Imperva Agent?

    Imperva agents are unique to the company. It allows subscribers to optimize their digital assets management. It does that by deploying the right combination of network appliances and agents to meet their needs. They monitor only local-privileged or database activities.

    They are easy to install and update and don’t need rules to shut down or reboot the archive. Besides that, they ensure businesses achieve detailed storage auditing with little cost and outstanding scalability.

  • What is Imperva SecureSphere?

    It is a comprehensive, integrated security platform that includes the SecureSphere web, file, and database safeguarding. SecureSphere strives to meet the demands of even the largest organizations, and Incapsula Application Defence Center backs it.

    It enables the company to deliver superior functioning and unified management capabilities for every type of client. Moreover, it gives subscribersvisibility to reduce administrative overhead and ensure robust information safety for their websites. With it, Imperva provides advanced safeguarding against web marauding.


A Good Cloud Security Software or Not?

Imperva has recorded 18 years of excellence as a Web Application Firewall. Since its inception, the platform has acquired and launched several technologies to drive better services to meet its customers’ needs. It has several unique key features. Undoubtedly, the organization has served its subscribers well.

Putting all these factors into consideration, Incapsula can be a good cloud protection software for small and large organizations in 2023.

Are you facing attacks on your site, and you need a layered cybersecurity strategy? Or maybe you’re a current user, and you have thoughts to share with others? Let us know in the comment section below.


Matt Robinson

Matt Robinson

Matt is an experienced technical writer and translator skilled in writing targeted texts for a variety of audiences. He has a diversified background, including social media management of various products. He is a data-driven strategist and a passionate story-teller. He posts about all social innovations and delivers high-quality research and content to our readers.


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