We have great news for those who want to ensure even more security and observability for their applications: the Azion Fingerprint feature is now available in the Azion Marketplace for all our customers. This feature, which works like a unique identifier for each device that accesses your applications, can be implemented quickly and easily, bringing a range of advantages for security and access management.
What is Azion Fingerprint?
Azion Fingerprint is a security feature that allows the unique identification of devices that are interacting with your applications. In this context, it works like an individual’s social security number, allowing efficient identification of devices accessing your services. It opens up a range of possibilities for significant improvements in personalization, the creation of sessions to identify anomalous behaviors, and much more.
How does Azion Fingerprint work?
Azion Fingerprint works in two complementary ways. First, through an edge function, Azion collects detailed information about requests made by devices accessing the application - that is, information contained at the network, protocol, and application level, in order to ensure secure device identification. To increase accuracy, it is possible to use an additional JS script in your application, collecting even more data about the browser used.
Through an edge function, Azion Fingerprint can be used in the form of a request header in client requests, a feature available for use in our Rules Engine as a criterion, allowing for accurate and secure identification of the devices where access to your system originates from. The result is an extra layer of identification, making it easier to improve security and effectively manage device access.
What are the main benefits of implementing Fingerprint in an application?
As we’ve highlighted, Fingerprint allows you to create an extra layer of security and observability that enables the proactive identification of anomalous behaviors and malicious actors, complemented by benefits like:
- Creation of unique identifiers: the implementation of Fingerprint allows for the creation of singular identifiers for each device accessing your application, increasing the accuracy of the identification process.
- Improved security: Fingerprint enhances the security of applications by identifying devices to allow analysis of unauthorized access or suspicious activities.
- Flexible implementation: by configuring just one function in the Edge Firewall you can already obtain fingerprints for use, and by simply adding the JS script to your application, you can achieve an even greater level of identification accuracy.
- Compatible and scalable: Designed to be compatible with a variety of browsers and platforms, Fingerprint is easily adaptable to different types of applications and can automatically scale according to user needs.
Main Use Cases for Azion Fingerprint
Authentication and authorization
Fingerprint can be used to identify devices and authorize access to resources, helping to prevent unauthorized access.
In this way, an e-commerce company, for example, can adopt this feature to identify devices and authorize access to the platform, check whether the user’s device is registered and authorized, or if there is any anomaly related to the device, location, or activity carried out during access.
Behavioral Analysis
Fingerprint can be used to analyze behaviors to identify suspicious patterns and trends.
Thus, a financial institution could benefit from this feature to analyze the behavior of certain devices, identifying successive login attempts or access from unknown/unauthorized devices.
Bot Manager
Azion Fingerprint can complement and enhance the security provided by Azion Bot Manager, a solution that uses advanced intelligent algorithms and Reputation Intelligence to analyze the behavior of received data.
With the device data collected by Fingerprint, Bot Manager allows for the detection of suspicious traffic and malicious bots, facilitating the implementation of preventive measures against attacks such as credential stuffing, vulnerability scanning, and site scraping.
Rate Limiting
Fingerprint can also be used to perform rate limiting, which is particularly useful for streaming services, for example.
By adopting this tool, a remote learning institution or a video platform can limit the access of certain users or devices to their videos, or even limit the number of videos a user can watch within a specific period. Talk to one of our experts today.
Observability and SIEM
With Fingerprint, it is possible to capture data about the behavior of devices in an SIEM or any observability software to create specific monitoring.
Privacy is our priority
Just as Azion cares about the security of its customers, it also cares about the privacy of its users. That’s why all Fingerprint features are compliant with privacy laws. To ensure essential security and privacy, device identification is done through:
- Device data (information from the browser manufacturer and the video chipset, when JS script is run in the browser; user-agent header);
- Location and language information (language and timezone for which the browser is set);
- Network information (SSL keys, remote address, ASN, and geolocation).
This data is treated with cutting-edge encryption techniques, which ensures that even system administrators cannot access the final result to get back the original raw data.
How to install Fingerprint?
To install Fingerprint, you need to access Azion’s Real-Time Manager (RTM) and then Azion’s Marketplace. Then, select the integration card and click on the “Get It Now” button in the lower right corner of the page. A success message will confirm that the integration has been installed.
If you want more detailed information on the configuration, integration, and implementation of this feature, please refer to our documentation.
Conclusion
With the Fingerprint solution, Azion reinforces its commitment to provide the highest security and functionality at the edge. This solution is a direct response to the needs expressed by our customers, and through its implementation we demonstrate our dedication to unlocking the full potential of the hyperconnected economy at the edge without sacrificing the most advanced security mechanisms.
To test Azion Fingerprint and explore its features, visit our Marketplace right now. If you are not yet part of our digital revolution, create your free account and receive $300 in service credits valid for 12 months.
