A secure web gateway (SWG) inspects outgoing internet traffic for potential threats and applies security policy for your organization. They protect your devices, prevent data leaks, and enforce acceptable use policies.
A cloud-delivered SWG eliminates the need to backhaul all internet-bound traffic to a central data center, reducing infrastructure and operational costs. With a deep-inspection DPI engine, SWGs can decrypt and inspect encrypted internet and SaaS applications.
Security
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) are vital to an organization’s security strategy. With cyberattacks at an all-time high and remote workforce, the need for solid web protection has never been greater. It is essential to understand what is next gen secure web gateway, as this advanced cybersecurity solution plays a pivotal role in fortifying digital defenses against evolving online threats and ensuring a safe browsing environment.
In addition to traditional URL filtering and malicious code detection, next-gen SWGs offer a range of other security capabilities. They can detect and block advanced threats, provide visibility into web activity, and protect data by filtering, blocking, or allowing applications across users, machines, networks, locations, and devices.
Unlike firewalls operating at the packet level, SWGs work on the application layer, looking at what is being sent over the protocol and checking for malicious intent. This enables them to block more sophisticated attacks such as DDoS, ransomware, and malware.
Additionally, modern SWGs have evolved to provide more visibility into cloud and SaaS applications that have blurred the lines of the enterprise network. They can decrypt encrypted traffic – including in the cloud – to ensure there are no blind spots, and they can send suspicious content to other security systems, such as DLP or CASB, to improve an organization’s posture further.
Moreover, the latest SWGs use deep-packet inspection technologies to identify applications instantly. This enables them to autonomously implement policies without human intervention, resulting in more efficient and effective security management.
Scalability
As organizations embrace the benefits of hybrid architectures and a cloud-enabled world, traditional secure web gateways can no longer protect against web-borne threats or deliver the visibility into business-critical activities that IT teams need. This is because they were designed with a different world of mobility and a changing network perimeter in mind.
Initially, SWGs were hardware appliances that provided internet security via proxy functions. They served as chokepoints at the edges of corporate networks, securing data and applications that resided on internal servers and “hairpins” remote users to them over secure connections. These proxies intercepted traffic and compared it against existing URL blocklists to prevent malware infection.
The need for these solutions was accelerated as organizations began embracing remote workforces and adopting cloud applications. These changes shifted data and applications away from the traditional enterprise infrastructure to remote locations and public networks, exposing them to an exponentially increased number of potential attack vectors.
To address these issues, SWGs have become more comprehensive tools for securing the modern network. For example, next-generation SWGs utilize SSL/TLS inspection capabilities to decrypt traffic before comparing it against existing threat and policy lists. This helps to identify various advanced threats that would otherwise be obscured by encryption. In addition, they can support the implementation of a Zero Trust framework, providing granular policies that allow or deny access to specific resources based on an organization’s security needs.
Performance
Unlike standard secure web gateways, which handle web traffic, next-generation SWGs perform security functions across all application layer types, enabling them to identify threats that can slip past legacy solutions. Integrated deep packet inspection (DPI) engines automatically identify all applications and their data, allowing administrators to implement policies to block or protect sensitive information. This includes identifying PII and banking credentials and routing them to a DLP service to protect them from attackers.
Next-generation SWGs protect against emerging cyberattacks that bypass traditional firewalls and security layers. They detect advanced malware and zero-day attacks using threat intelligence and machine learning. They use an integrated sandboxing engine to safely detonate these new threats and protect the organization from data loss.
SWGs can also filter content and impose bandwidth restrictions for web applications. This is a critical feature as remote workforces blur the corporate network perimeter, requiring personal devices and insecure connections to access apps, cloud services, and other company resources. Moreover, many new applications are designed to move business-sensitive data across private and public networks, increasing the risk of data leaks and other threats. As part of a holistic cybersecurity strategy, SWG safeguards these applications, shadow IT apps, and cloud services with a combination of cloud-native security capabilities that include CASB, DLP, and SD-WAN.
Integration
In a time when remote working is becoming more common, SWGs must also protect employees from malicious content and threats that could affect data in transit. To achieve this, they must seamlessly integrate with comprehensive IT support and other security solutions to provide an integrated cybersecurity and network management approach. This ensures that employees not only have the necessary support for their IT needs but are also shielded from potential cyber threats.
For example, to prevent unauthorized transfer, outbound traffic must be scanned for sensitive patterns and phrases like social security numbers, credit card information, medical data, and intellectual property. SWGs incorporating DLP capabilities can block outbound data from leaving the network, ensuring data stays secure and compliant with regulations such as GDPR.
Additionally, application awareness encourages SWGs to apply security policies automatically based on what they identify as users’ applications. This enables latency-sensitive applications, such as remote surgery and autonomous driving, to be granted priority processing so users can experience uninterrupted performance.
Furthermore, integration with threat intelligence and machine-learning capabilities such as malware prevention, ransomware protection, phishing detection, and remote browser isolation provides a comprehensive solution for tackling unknown threats. This means that SWGs can identify and block malware, zero-day attacks, advanced phishing, lateral movement, and more. This will be achieved through dynamic threat intelligence for URLs, IPs, and file hashes combined with machine learning and emulation-based sandboxing to protect users from new forms of cyberattacks.
