A Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is a security solution that monitors and filters web traffic. When an Internet request comes into the network, the SWG solution examines it and only passes it if it doesn’t violate established policies. Next-generation SWG solutions provide granular visibility and control of users, devices, apps, content, and activity. These capabilities improve user experiences and allow IT to enforce adaptive policies.
SWG Solutions Monitor Web Traffic
SWG solutions monitor incoming and outgoing web traffic to detect and block threats. This can prevent malware from entering the organization’s network and sensitive data from leaking. It can also help protect employees from unwanted material that could distract them from work and cause productivity loss.
Typically, SWG solutions use various technologies to identify and prevent threats, including antivirus engines, malware detection, sandboxing, and behavior analysis. This helps to protect the enterprise from malicious content, and it can also prevent data from being stolen or lost.
In addition, SWG solutions often integrate with firewalls to provide additional protection for incoming web traffic. This ensures that only traffic deemed safe by the SWG solution can enter the organization’s network. This can prevent malware from infecting endpoint devices and spreading throughout the organization. SWG solutions can also protect against data breaches and other cyber-attacks that affect people’s privacy.
These attacks are becoming more common and can significantly impact businesses and individuals. Fortunately, SWG solutions can prevent these attacks by monitoring web traffic 24/7 and blocking potential risks.
SWG solutions can also prevent unauthorized data from leaving the enterprise by using content inspection to identify and analyze sensitive information. This can include credit card numbers, social security numbers, and intellectual property.
Then, SWG solutions can automatically prevent this information’s unauthorized transmission outside the organization’s network. This type of data exfiltration can be difficult to detect with legacy security tools, but it’s a key aspect of SWG solutions.
SWG Solutions Protect Data
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) are a security solution that monitors web traffic to detect and prevent cyber threats. SWGs sit at the edge of an organization’s network, between employees and the Internet, and inspect all incoming and outgoing web traffic to protect against malware infections, data breaches, and other risks.
SWG solutions can be deployed as a hardware appliance or a software solution running in the cloud. Regardless of their deployment model, all SWGs act as gatekeepers that monitor all incoming and outgoing web traffic to identify cyber threats and enforce security policies.
Unlike traditional firewalls, SWGs monitor and control web-based activity using multiple detection capabilities. They include URL filtering, malware detection and analysis, SSL inspection, and application controls for popular cloud-based web applications and ShadowIT. They can also provide user behavior analytics to analyze data transfers to help prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Next-generation SWGs integrate with other security and networking technologies, such as DLP and CASB. This is a security service edge architecture that can help organizations improve their security posture and comply with regulatory requirements. For example, SWGs with CASB can scan encrypted data for malicious code and compare it against security policies to ensure that only authorized data is sent over the Internet.
SWG Solutions Monitor Employee Behavior
Security risks escalate as more organizations adopt remote work and employees work outside the office. Employees not working on company hardware may access cloud-based applications that expose data to threats and unauthorized transfer. A secure web gateway (SWG) monitors web traffic 24/7 to prevent these risks and ensure that employees only have the permissions and applications they need for their work.
SWGs sit between the network and the Internet, inspecting incoming and outgoing web traffic for security threats and compliance with corporate policies. A SWG can include URL filtering, content filtering, DLP, SSL decryption and other features to enhance security.
A SWG can also detect and mitigate malware attacks by blocking malicious sites, monitoring traffic to thwart attempts to download viruses or worms from websites or other sources, detecting Trojan horses and adware and preventing the spread of these threats. It can also see and stop data exfiltration by analyzing web page content for confidential information like credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers or intellectual property before it leaves the organization’s network.
SWG solutions can be deployed on premise or in a cloud-based environment. A cloud-based solution can offer advantages like easy scalability, faster deployment and lower upfront costs. However, it can raise concerns about data sovereignty and regulatory compliance in some countries. For these reasons, it may be best to use a hybrid approach that combines on premise and cloud-based SWG solutions.
SWG Solutions Prevent Malware Attacks
A secure web gateway (SWG) acts as a proxy between your employees and the Internet, analyzing and filtering Web traffic to protect against malicious sites and malware attacks. By identifying and enforcing security policies on both inbound and outbound data, your organization can safeguard information and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
SWG solutions can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud and offer deployment options to fit your business needs best. On-premises SWG solutions are installed on your network infrastructure and require an upfront investment in hardware, software, and personnel to maintain and manage.
Cloud-based SWG solutions are hosted on a vendor’s servers and provide a lower-cost alternative that eliminates the need to invest in your infrastructure. Next Gen, SWG solutions include integrated threat protection capabilities that use machine learning and behavioral analysis to identify and block various cyber threats, including phishing attacks, ransom ware, and data exfiltration attempts. They also enable you to configure granular acceptable use policies and invoke adaptive procedures based on app risk, user risk, activity, and data sensitivity.
Conclusion
To improve security and productivity, SWG solutions with remote browser isolation (RBI) remove harmful code from your enterprise network by running it in a virtual container outside of the endpoint, eliminating the need for complex and costly firewalls and other security systems that force traffic hair-pinning through VPN tunnels. In addition, SWG solutions that support SSL inspection can decrypt and examine encrypted traffic, giving you superior protection against threats.