---
title: Alerts · Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF) docs
description: The WAF provides two types of alerts that inform you of any spikes in security events:
lastUpdated: 2024-08-13T19:56:56.000Z
source_url:
  html: https://72906cb7.preview.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/reference/alerts/index.md
  md: https://72906cb7.preview.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/reference/alerts/
---

The WAF provides two types of alerts that inform you of any spikes in security events:

* **Security Events Alert**: Alerts about spikes across all services that generate log entries in Security Events.
* **Advanced Security Events Alert**: Similar to Security Events Alert with support for additional filtering options.

For details on alert types and their availability, refer to [Alert types](#alert-types).

To receive WAF alerts, you must configure a [notification](https://developers.cloudflare.com/notifications/). Notifications help you stay up to date with your Cloudflare account through email, PagerDuty, or webhooks, depending on your Cloudflare plan.

## Set up a notification for WAF alerts

For instructions on how to set up a notification for a WAF alert, refer to [Create a Notification](https://developers.cloudflare.com/notifications/get-started/#create-a-notification).

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## Alert logic

WAF alerts use a static threshold together with a [z-score](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_score) calculation over the last six hours and five-minute buckets of events. An alert is triggered whenever the z-score value is above 3.5 and the spike crosses a threshold of 200 security events. You will not receive duplicate alerts within the same two-hour time frame.

## Alert types
