What are Secure Web Gateway Vendors?

A Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is a security solution that protects organizations from web-related cyber threats such as malware, viruses and malicious websites. Serving as a checkpoint and sitting between users and the internet, an SWG monitors and inspects all inbound and outbound web traffic, blocking anything that violates security or acceptable use policies.

Secure web gateway vendors are technology companies that offer SWGs as standalone technologies or as part of integrated web security solutions. While an SWG may be deployed as an on-premises appliance or software solution, a growing number of secure web gateway vendors offer cloud-based services that simplify management, maintenance and upgrades of SWG technology.
 

Transformational shifts in IT environments have made secure web gateway software essential to cybersecurity. As organizations migrate more data and applications to the cloud, IT environments have become highly distributed – data and applications may now reside almost anywhere in the world and can no longer be protected by the traditional network perimeter. Workforces have become more distributed as well, with a high percentage of employees working from home or outside the office. To stay productive, workers require fast and secure connections – often on their own devices via unsecured connections – to cloud services or corporate IT resources in data centers around the world. 

At the same time, threat actors are increasingly resourceful, devising ever more sophisticated tactics to penetrate network defenses or dupe users into revealing login credentials. Traditional web security solutions designed to protect the network perimeter simply can’t keep pace with the rapid evolution of the threat landscape. Legacy technology that must backhaul traffic through a central data center for security inspection adds unacceptable latency to network connections. And it’s virtually impossible for IT security teams to add VPNs or install agents on every laptop, tablet and smartphone.

A secure web gateway solution overcomes these challenges by making web security available wherever users need it, and by allowing IT teams to manage SWG security from one location, enforcing policies across the organization.

Products from a secure web gateway vendor provide protection from internet-borne threats by inspecting all inbound and outbound web traffic and taking action on any traffic that violates security policies. For example, when a web request is found to contain malware or when traffic leaving the organization contains sensitive material, a secure web gateway may block, quarantine or flag the traffic while alerting IT teams to the potential threat.

A secure web gateway service, appliance or software solution may incorporate a variety of technologies to enforce security and acceptable use policies.

• URL filtering solutions prevent users from accessing malicious, suspicious or inappropriate websites based on specific URLs or URL categories. URL filtering may also allow or block access based on specific users, groups or machines.
• Application control technology allows administrators to apply granular security policies that block or limit the usage of specific web apps and widgets.
• Data loss prevention (DLP) solutions prevent critical and sensitive information from leaving the organization’s network.
• Antivirus technology uses real-time virus signatures to proactively identify, prevent and remove threats like viruses, Trojans and adware.
• HTTPS inspection searches for threats hidden in SSL-encrypted traffic by decrypting traffic with the sender’s public key.
• Malware detection technology inspects traffic for malicious code in real time, blocking access or removing malicious code from webpages and downloaded documents.

Solutions offered by secure web gateway vendors provide organizations and IT teams with significant benefits.

• Superior protection against threats. Secure web gateways offer greater protection from malware, spoofed websites, malicious downloads, data leaks and employee use of unauthorized or unsanctioned websites and web apps.
• Better performance. SWGs provide exceptional security without slowing down network connections, enabling users to quickly and directly connect to the cloud services they need to stay productive.
• Greater visibility. Secure web gateways monitor and log all web traffic, giving IT teams deeper visibility into how employees are using web resources and how attackers are targeting the organization via the web.
• Streamlined compliance. By delivering granular control over web usage and greater visibility into web traffic, the technology offered by secure web gateway vendors helps enforce policies that ensure compliance with a wide range of regulatory frameworks. SWGs also make it easier for IT teams to prove compliance when responding to auditor’s requests.

Recognized as a leader in cybersecurity by Forrester, Gartner and NSS Labs, Forcepoint provides a secure web gateway solution as part of Forcepoint ONE, a cloud-native, all-in-one security platform. Forcepoint ONE SWG enables users to securely access any website or download any document while still enjoying high-speed performance. Optional Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) capabilities provide secure-container rendering of suspicious sites and Content Disarm & Reconstruction (CDR) tools completely sanitize downloadable documents.

Features of Forcepoint ONE SWG include:

• High availability, with 99.99% verified uptime since 2015
• A unified administrative console that reduces repetitive and redundant configuration management
• Accelerated user onboarding with SCIM provisioning
• Simplified deployment, with a unified managed device agent for CASB, SWG and ZTNA
• Auto scaling, with over 300 points of presence and distributed SWG architecture to minimize latency and maximize throughput
• Data-in-motion scanning that blocks malware and data exfiltration no matter where users are located
• Field Programmable SASE Logic to block specific HTTPS request methods and to achieve granular control of any element in a webpage
• Control of website access down to the URL directory level