A secure web gateway is essential to any security strategy for your business. It enables organizations to protect employees from online threats while also increasing productivity.
A secure web gateway inspects incoming traffic and checks it against its allowed list, allowing only approved sites to pass. It can also prevent data exfiltration, which occurs when unauthorized information leaves an organization’s site.
Increased Security
Whether you are protecting your company’s internal network, data, or reputation, secure web gateways like those from Versa Networks are necessary. They provide a first defense against malware, ransomware, and other threats.
They can also help prevent data exfiltration, preventing unauthorized information from leaving your network and harming your business.
A secure web gateway acts as an intermediary between your users and the Internet, inspecting each request before allowing it to pass through. It can be software or hardware-based, or cloud-based.
It works similarly to firewalls. They use rules and traffic inspection to identify threats.
Reduced Risk of Data Breach
One of the most significant benefits of having secure web gateway is that it can reduce your risk of a data breach. These gateways are designed to stop hackers from accessing your network and potentially leaking sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or personal information, out into the open.
A secure web gateway (SWG) firewall filters internet traffic at the application level and prevents users from accessing malicious websites and links. These gateways inspect and filter traffic in real-time.
As web traffic passes through the secure web gateway, it’s analyzed and blocked based on policies. This includes URL filtering, advanced machine learning, anti-virus scanning, sandboxing, and data loss prevention. In addition, SWGs often incorporate cloud access security brokers (CASB) and other integrated technologies to improve threat detection and control.
Increased Productivity
A secure web gateway provides an organization real-time web traffic monitoring to ensure it complies with security policies. Using a URL category database, the SWG can determine whether to allow or block content based on company policy.
Another critical feature of SWGs is the ability to decrypt SSL and TLS data before sending it to a user or web server. This allows for a thorough traffic inspection, detecting and preventing malware.
In addition, a secure web gateway can also detect and limit applications employees are accessing to improve productivity and network performance. This can include social networking, instant messaging, and file uploads.
Better Customer Service
A secure web gateway is a virtual proxy between your organization and the Internet that acts as a firewall, a web filter and a content-blocking snooper. It can be a hardware, software or virtual appliance.
Aside from protecting you from phishing and malware, an SWG can also improve employee productivity by giving your team granular control over the websites their employees access. For example, you can restrict users from accessing adult content or prevent employees from spending their work hours on social media.
A secureeb gateway can be found in many forms, including a cloud-based solution that uses the latest encryption technologies like SSL and HTTPS to protect your organization from cyber-attacks. It also has the most powerful content-blocking features to guard against malicious sites and applications. The best part? The gateway can be deployed anywhere and in any configuration to fit your unique needs.
Increased Revenue
If your business sells products online, a secure web gateway can help you increase revenue by reducing the number of transactions your customers need to make. Instead of charging your clients a higher fee each time they purchase, you can only charge them a small percentage.
SWGs can also protect data against malware and other types of security threats circulating on the Internet. Because they inspect all incoming data before passing it on to users, they can prevent many phishing attacks and other types of malware from getting into your network.
This includes enabling them to block threats from popular social networks and instant messaging applications. Those features are essential in sectors such as government, healthcare and retail, where data is often sensitive, and many trusts rely on social media interactions.
Reduced Costs
A secure web gateway (SWG) reduces costs by keeping user devices and access to sensitive data protected from malicious attacks. This helps ensure employee productivity and the integrity of company information.
SWGs can be deployed as software, cloud-based services or physical appliances positioned at the edge of your network. They inspect real-time traffic to ensure it aligns with your security policies.
For example, if you don’t want employees accessing adult content while on your network, an SWG can enforce your policy.
SWGs categorize incoming web traffic, including HTTPS and application names, to enable the enforcement of regulatory requirements like the payment card industry data security standard (PCI) and the European Union’s general data protection regulation (GDPR). This granular control allows you to apply policies to specific data per compliance requirements.