A secure web gateway (SWG) is a hardware or software appliance on your network’s edge. It filters, analyzes, and enforces policies to protect your organization from malware, viruses, and phishing attacks. Next-generation SWGs offer more robust security for environments that have evolved beyond traditional network perimeters. They provide greater visibility and agility without requiring traffic to backhaul to data centers for inspection, which slows down performance.
Security
As organizations adopt remote work policies and rely on software as a service (SaaS) for digital transformation, web-borne threats are increasing in frequency and sophistication. Using a next-generation secure gateway can help organizations protect against these attacks while providing users with secure, fast, and reliable access to the internet and SaaS applications. Accurate web gateways monitor and filter web traffic to prevent cyberattacks and data breaches while blocking unauthorized user behavior. They can be deployed as hardware appliances, software solutions, or cloud-based services and simultaneously protect multiple locations and devices. The gateway filters out unsafe content that could compromise network security and halts the download of malware payloads. This functionality can be combined with a robust URL filtering function, allowing administrators to set policies restricting web-based content based on URL categories and user groups. This can prevent employees from downloading potentially harmful files while limiting bandwidth utilization and reducing costs. Some advanced secure gateways can use sandboxing to test downloaded code in an emulated framework away from the actual network environment, which can identify and block several forms of malware that could otherwise be undetected by anti-virus or traditional malware scanners. Other features include data loss prevention, which checks outgoing data for unique patterns and stops sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, from the network.
Caching
Sitting at the network’s edge, Secure Web Gateways (SWG) inspect all incoming and outgoing traffic for signs of malicious or risky behavior. They also use company policies to decide whether or not to allow, block, or quarantine web traffic. By enabling employees to access the cloud applications they need without dragging in ransomware, spyware, and other dangerous malware on their devices, SWGs increase productivity and ensure security. A cache stores frequently accessed content locally, reducing server load and latency. This enables SWGs to deliver content more quickly and accurately. Caching also provides better performance for organizations with distributed networks and workforces. A next-generation SWG uses a cloud-native architecture to provide more robust security for remote and mobile users. It can be delivered from a cloud service or as an appliance, supporting software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). SWGs also provide greater visibility of application characteristics and behavior, allowing for more precise URL filtering and Application Control functionality. They can also prevent data leaks, both accidental and malicious. This includes customer information, credit card numbers, personal details, and intellectual property.
Performance
A secure web gateway between the network and employees prevents employee devices from dragging in ransomware, malware, viruses, and other threats while enabling them to access the necessary information.
SWGs can be deployed as software components, virtual appliances, or hardware devices and can sit at the edge of the organization’s network. All incoming and outgoing internet traffic passes through the SWG, which monitors all web activity for compliance with company policies. This includes URL filtering, which analyzes website data for malicious codes and threats and blocks users from accessing inappropriate or hazardous content. It also monitors return traffic for suspicious payloads, and all attempted URL connections, preventing data leakage from malicious sites. Next-generation SWGs also incorporate DLP to protect against data loss. Inspecting all outgoing data for unique patterns, a SWG can prevent sensitive information like credit card numbers, user names and passwords, medical records, or intellectual property from being accidentally or purposely leaked out of the organization. They can also inspect incoming data to block, flag, or quarantine cloud applications that don’t comply with corporate security and management requirements.
In addition to reducing complexity and cost, SWGs delivered as direct cloud services or in appliance-cloud hybrid configurations can reduce latency for better performance across the network. These solutions can also help minimize bottlenecks when data is transmitted between the SWG and the rest of the network, such as cloud access security brokers (CASB), zero-trust network access, and software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). This ensures that business-critical applications are always available to users regardless of where or what device they use.
Flexibility
With data being stored everywhere, from centralized repositories to software-as-a-service applications and remote offices, organizations need the flexibility of protecting employees and their devices wherever they are. A traditional secure web gateway (SWG) sits at the network’s edge and inspects incoming and outgoing web traffic, blocking and quarantining content that violates security or acceptable use policies.
This means preventing accidental or malicious data leaks of sensitive information such as customer information, credit card numbers, or intellectual property. Advanced protection measures can also block access to sites that are deemed unsafe and can limit bandwidth for unproductive applications like social media and gambling websites. A next-gen SWG can deliver the performance and flexibility that today’s workforce needs without impacting productivity or user experience. By delivering the speed of direct-to-cloud connections for cloud applications and SaaS solutions, next-gen SWGs help improve performance and accelerate digital transformation while enabling IT teams to centrally manage the security and control of web activities and applications.
SWGs are an integral part of a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture that includes CASB, Zero Trust Network Access, and Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN). Unlike legacy gateways, which require all traffic to be backhauled to an on-premises appliance or VPN on every device, a modern solution can decrypt and inspect traffic on endpoint devices in the cloud or edge routers, avoiding the need for on-premise appliances, VPNs, or extended network hops to distant proxies.