What Is a Secure Web Gateway? Definition, Benefits, and Best Practices

A secure web gateway (SWG) is defined as a cybersecurity tool that monitors and prevents unauthorized web traffic from entering or leaving an organization’s network. In this article, we’ll look at the technical foundations of SWG, its key components, the benefits of implementing this system, and the top 10 best practices that can maximize the benefits of a secure web gateway for enterprises in 2021. 

What Is a Secure Web Gateway?

A secure web gateway (SWG) is a cybersecurity tool that monitors and prevents unauthorized web traffic from entering or leaving an organization’s network.  

The gateway acts as a checkpoint that safeguards the organization from malware, viruses, and suspicious and malicious website traffic. It acts as a filter and allows users to access authentic, approved, and secure websites. Additionally, a secure web gateway also protects critical and sensitive data (user data, confidential files, and intellectual property data) of organizations from exfiltration, i.e., deny unauthorized data from leaving an enterprise’s site). This system is capable of protecting users irrespective of the client’s location, operating system, or the application that is being used.

Secure web gateways are available in various modes such as hardware, software or a virtual appliance. The gateway is active along the organization’s network perimeter or sits in the cloud. In both cases, it acts as a proxy between the organization’s internal staff and the internet.

SWGs have a significant role to play in today’s day and age, primarily because of two factors: growing remote task forces and the rise in cyberattacks as a consequence of it. With companies embracing remote workforces, workers have been using unsecured endpoints on unknown public networks. This has not only made organizations vulnerable but has led to a substantial rise in cybercrimes across industry verticals. Today, almost anyone has access to sophisticated malware that can easily disrupt an organization’s digital foundation.

Secure web gateways put a break on such data breaches as they act as a security filter for inbound and outbound internet traffic. The system also ensures that organizations enforce corporate and regulatory policy compliance standards to protect their confidential information from being exposed to the cyber world.

According to the IMARC group’s recent report titled ‘Secure Web Gateway Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026′, the global secure web gateway market size is predicted to expand at a CAGR of 19.8% from 2021 to 2026. According to another research by 360 Market Updates, the SWG market is expected to reach a valuation of $5,723.1 million by 2025, up from $3,753.2 million in 2021.

See More: What Is a Security Vulnerability? Definition, Types, and Best Practices for Prevention

Key Components and Processes

A secure web gateway provides layered security to an organization’s network. The system is made up of several components listed below.

1. Web proxy

For a secure web gateway to function, all outbound traffic must pass through it. This implies that the gateway allows proxying of web requests via TCP ports (port 80 and 443) between internal organizational endpoints and external internet-based websites.

2. Policy enforcement

Secure web gateways help enforce policies that lay the protocol for who, what, where, when, and how internal users interact with the web. These policies employ restrictions based on web usage quota, permitted web applications, content, time, and others. In a nutshell, the enforced policies regulate web traffic (inbound and outbound) via an SWG.

3. Malware detection

With artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies in place, web page content can be dynamically inspected for malicious codes. Some gateways are configured to block such malicious sites entirely, while others are configured only to block the malicious code and deliver a malware-free web page to the intended user.

4. Traffic inspection

An SWG plays a crucial role in traffic inspection as it analyzes all the web traffic passing through to-and-fro from the organization. It blocks content that does not conform to the corporate policies, such as denying entry to unencrypted content from any site. These inspection policies can also be customized for better organizational implementation.

5. Data loss prevention (DLP)

The data loss prevention functionality performs data checks on outbound web traffic for unique patterns. Outgoing traffic is inspected for sensitive user data such as credit card data, user address, medical information, intellectual property, and more. The gateway thereby ensures that critical corporate information is prevented from being stolen.

6. URL filter

URL filtering is an effective security tool for blocking malicious websites. A gateway can use databases of known malicious sites and their categories to keep malware at bay. It can also prevent the downloading of suspicious payloads.

7. Sandboxing

Some secure web gateways employ emulation of the network environment to run a copy of a suspicious website. This helps detect malware in an emulated framework. The method is effective in identifying, detecting, and blocking several highly sophisticated malware.

See More: What Is Network Security? Definition, Types, and Best Practices

5 Key Benefits of Implementing a Secure Web Gateway for Enterprises

A secure web gateway provides an additional defensive layer to protect an organization from ever-growing, advanced cyber threats. The gateway enables users to seamlessly move their remote devices, applications, and workloads to the cloud, ensuring the security of the web traffic traversing over the enterprise’s network.

A typical SWG offers the following benefits:

1. Detection and prevention of emerging threats

Web traffic generally bypasses firewalls, net protectors, and other security solutions. However, as a secure web gateway operates via a proxy, it easily identifies potential threats, vulnerable data, and malicious code concealed within the web content. In a typical scenario, the gateway proxy looks at the entire session’s data before remediating action to resolve ambiguities. This method eliminates the possibility of any attack damaging the network via policy violations that can put ongoing operations at risk.

SWGs perform constant monitoring (24/7) of web traffic and dynamically incorporate emerging attack signatures into the pool of detection capabilities. The gateway provides up-to-date web intelligence that associates and correlates files, records, emails, and endpoints to generate threat profiles. Such intelligence gives a holistic approach to unravel attacks on a specific organization.

2. Exposure of encrypted traffic threats

Decrypting secure sockets layer (SSL) traffic requires substantial memory and processing capabilities. It can hamper the overall performance of most security solutions. According to a research study by NSS Labs, Inc., next-generation firewalls that provide SSL decryption have shown a significant decline in overall performance (81% performance loss). As a consequence, such firewalls and other security solutions allow SSL traffic to pass through without inspection.

However, with a rise in SSL web traffic, around 50% of web content is encrypted. In totality, a huge chunk of web traffic is not analyzed for cyberattacks, threats, compliance or policy violations. Research has also revealed that cybercriminals have widely used encryption to disguise malware in around half of the cyberattacks. Sophisticated gateways provide an SSL inspection facility for greater control of encrypted web traffic.

3. Better visibility and monitoring 

The web is too dynamic to stay updated with new websites, as new web content and web links are added every second across the internet. These represent new attack vectors that are a threat to an organization. Since they are unknown, it is difficult to combat such evolving threat actors. Additionally, most web traffic bypasses firewalls and security measures.

However, an SWG solution monitors every small activity happening over an organization’s network. It logs the events occurring over on-premise, public, and private clouds as well. Such monitoring and logging facilities give better visibility and control over the entire web traffic. It enables organizations to comprehend how they are being targeted by attackers and helps them create better security policies in line with their business needs.

4. Compliance with regulatory requirements

A secure web gateway provides granular control over an organization’s network, applications, and data. This allows you to apply policies on specific data per regulatory requirements. Thus, the gateway categorizes web traffic based on various attributes and fields such as HTTP, HTTPS, application name, etc. Such categorization allows policy enforcement over data as per regulations such as payment card industry data security standard (PCI), European Union’s general data protection regulation (GDPR), and others. The granularity provided by the gateway aids in greater risk management and betters the organization’s compliance efforts.

5. Maximized security investments

A secure web gateway integrates with other security solutions existing in the ecosystem of an organization. It stretches the security layer across organizational environments, including on-premise and cloud. The gateway inspects and forwards authentic traffic that adheres to policies set by the organization. 

When the web traffic does not adhere to the policy requirements, the solution applies policies that fulfill the enterprise’s business and security objectives. Thus, a secure web gateway maximizes the existing security investments for the organization by extending its security stance across diverse verticals.

Also Read: What Is Cyber Threat? Definition, Types, Hunting, Best Practices, and Examples

Top 10 Best Practices for 2021

Organizations can maximize the benefits of secure web gateway solutions in 2021 by adopting the top 10 best practices elaborated in this section.

1. Select an appropriate SWG deployment strategy

An enterprise needs to establish clear business and security objectives to reap the rewards of a secure web gateway solution. Organizations should weigh in on the pros and cons of different SWG deployment models before finalizing one. Conventional physical on-premise appliances have been around for some time now, but companies across sectors have a growing inclination for virtual appliances.

Cloud-based SWG services are becoming increasingly popular as ease of implementation plays an important role for any corporate organization. It is also observed that more companies are now accepting cloud-based web security gateway services to enforce live URL look-ups, provide monitoring services in hybrid deployments, and perform effective real-time analytics of web traffic traversing the cloud.

2. Effectively manage shadow IT

Users often install plenty of unauthorized applications on their devices or access them remotely via the cloud. This leads to the high exposure of the enterprise’s network to hundreds of illicit applications. It widens the attack surface of the network and makes it more vulnerable to a data security breach. However, a sophisticated web gateway solution can provide enhanced visibility into the organization’s network. It effectively identifies, responds to, and manages shadow IT in the organizational network.

A top-rated secure web gateway should monitor, track, and identify all applications running over the network. It should also perform real-time analytics to localize and block higher security risk applications. Blocking can happen entirely or in part, where, for example, downloads can be blocked, but the gateway can also allow uploads.

3. Inspect encrypted web traffic

Encryption is a solution for protection against cyberattacks that spy, tamper, or fiddle with the web content in transit. Web traffic encryption is taken care of by a standard known as transport layer security (TLS). The TLS framework draws a secure tunnel between disparate endpoints and monitors the traffic passing through that tunnel.

However, cybercriminals also use encryption to conceal suspicious activities that can completely deny access to files, as observed in ransomware attacks. However, secure web gateways use proxy servers for their operations. Such proxies enable you to have granular control over web traffic and inspect HTTPS-encrypted data simultaneously.

The gateway proxy decrypts data into plaintext, analyzes the decrypted content, and upon the completion of analysis, re-encrypts and transmits the web content via a secure connection. The proxy can perform URL inspection for malicious content and provide enhanced visibility into threats or attacks occurring through encrypted communications. It also maintains the confidentiality and integrity of the TLS encrypted data. Hence, a secure web gateway should be able to inspect encrypted traffic for better coverage and protection.

4. Integrate SWG with other traditional endpoint security controls

Before deploying a secure web gateway, organizations must ensure that the existing endpoint security controls are at full capacity. This will provide additional protection that can benefit the enterprise. As an SWG adds a new device to the network, it is important to review the organization’s network topology for easy gateway implementation.

Additionally, organizations need to document the data of security devices on the network. This includes determining the threats that security devices mitigate and the filters they use to enforce security rules and policies. This is done to avoid scenarios in which neither the traditional security endpoint device nor the SWG protects against a particular cyber threat.

The gateway safeguards the network perimeter from attackers. However, when attackers manage to infiltrate through the security controls, they can move deeper into the network and access the organization’s sensitive data. In such a case, when the perimeter is compromised, organizations should utilize security measures such as ‘zero trust network access’ and ‘multi-factor authentication‘ to manage access control. This restricts user access only to applications and data that they are authorized to use.

5. Manage usage and establish security rules

Monitoring how employees use social networking websites is critical for any organization. Although such sites serve as great business-building channels, they also open a window for security threats that can hamper the productivity of the organization. As web gateways offer visibility and a clearer picture of web traffic, implementing complex rules to enforce security policies becomes easier with an SWG. Gateway supports real-time visualization of application usage and also tracks bandwidth utilization or websites visited by users. These parameters allow enterprises to manage web usage better and establish security rules to increase overall business productivity.

Secure web gateways provide a greater degree of control over data so that rules can be specifically applied over individual applications rather than applying an ‘allow’ or ‘deny’ rule over a host of applications.

6. Employ protocols for reviewing and investigating alerts

A secure web gateway produces alerts from time to time when either of the rules is overhauled or a threshold is reached. With appropriate procedures and protocols in place, such alerts can be provided with quick and effective responses. When dealing with multiple concurrent events, prioritization can go a long way. This means incidents of high value and deals with business-critical data should be handled and investigated with priority.

The effectiveness of a secure web gateway can be measured by determining the costs of the incidents and the corresponding alerts produced. Also, constantly tracking SWG interfaces that map web traffic can allow administrators to control false alerts and modify the security rules if necessary.

7. Update policies from productivity to protection

A secure web gateway is generally deployed to improve user productivity by blocking unauthorized or unproductive sites. However, almost 90% of malware is sourced from trusted and top-rated websites. Several popular sites are vulnerable to injection attacks that can eventually lead to malware downloads from unrated hosts, thereby infecting systems.

Many web gateways have policies that allow access to unrated hosts that enable downloads. Hence, to broaden the gateway protection and increase productivity, SWGs need to have updated policies regularly. This may include blocking downloads from unrated hosts and sites with suspicious reputations and behavior. Such a method will block the access path for malware, thereby closing any possible injection points.

8. Ensure centralized management

With remote work ruling the corporate ecosystem, reducing administration overheads has become critical for SWG administrators. Organizations need to be aware that web gateways should provide easy access to top admin tasks, i.e., GUI-based access. It should support built-in load balancing and modular deployment to handle a large customer base. 

Moreover, a role-based administration in the SWG framework can allow delegation of tasks to users, ensuring ease of use for administrators. With centralized management (dashboard) of deployed servers, gateway management becomes easy and scalable.

9. Provide better application control

Web application-level control allows businesses to manage the usage of public internet-based applications. As such, a secure web gateway should detect, control, and block several applications for better customer coverage and protection. An SWG should also categorize various applications based on type, usage, cost, etc., to provide a comprehensive view and granular control over applications.

Another class of applications that organizations need to be careful about is P2P applications. These are mainly used for sharing music, movies, games, and various types of other files. However, they are also popular for distributing pirated software. Hence, such applications need to be monitored or blocked at the gateway itself. Thus, SWGs need to entail techniques such as intrusion prevention system, endpoint protection firewall or application, and device control to deliver complete P2P coverage at the web gateway. 

10. Optimize reporting capabilities

Reporting capabilities have a crucial role to play when it comes to the usability of SWG solutions. This can be facilitated by interviewing the data stakeholders and deciding the attributes represented in the reports. For example, a law firm confirms that it wants to drill down and investigate lost productivity. Once you identify a specific need, you can save that report as a template and apply it across departments with minor tweaks depending on the need.

With the help of the template, you can also decide the schedule for recurring reporting processes. As you start analyzing various business units, you may also happen to extract some default report templates and modify them as per your specific needs.

Also Read: What Is Anything/Everything as a Service (XaaS)? Definition and Key Trends

Takeaway

A secure web gateway applies and enforces corporate-acceptable policies on web usage to protect users from cyberattacks and threats. With enterprises adopting remote work and employing mobile workforces, it is challenging to safeguard mobile users from potential threats. This is because enterprises have several applications located on-premise while other applications reside in the cloud.

Applications located on-premise are remotely accessed via a VPN. However, when users access cloud applications, the VPN gets disconnected, and the systems are thereby exposed to risks. This is why numerous enterprises are deploying SWGs. It monitors web traffic 24/7 and provides secure internet access whenever users are disconnected from the VPN.

Do you think a secure web gateway will keep up with the ever-evolving web content, sophisticated malware, and other cyber threats? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!