Protecting an enterprise network from malware and other dangers brought by internet traffic and dangerous websites is a primary goal of Secure Web Gateway (SWG) solutions. You can be certain that your network will be protected against dangerous sites, services, and web apps that try to infiltrate it.
Multiple components, such as virus detection and URL filtering, contribute to this end. In many cases, they also prevent malware from “calling home” and may limit the accidental or deliberate loss of important business and private data by controlling outbound traffic.
Using a secure web gateway, you’ll have quick and secure access to the Internet and SaaS services you need to conduct your digital company. As enterprises ramp up their cloud, SaaS, and mobile transformation initiatives in the wake of the pandemic, their significance has grown. Secure online gateways, employee cybersecurity training, and secure email gateways all play a significant role in IT security since end users pose the greatest threat to companies’ data and operations.
We will learn about SWG in this article, as well as some of the top SWG secure gateways available.
Here is our list of the best secure web gateways:
- Perimeter 81 (ACCESS FREE TRIAL) The Perimeter 81 Web security system blocks access to potentially harmful or inappropriate websites. Ensures the safety of your company’s network and all of its points of contact. An internal network may be protected against potentially harmful and even deadly assaults by using several gaps to convey their destructive payloads.
- ManageEngine Browser Security Plus (FREE TRIAL) A highly scalable platform that protects users from a wide range of browser-based attacks with enterprise content filtering options.
- Symantec Secure Gateway Symantec’s Secure Gateway enhanced threat protection and email security are all included with a cloud-based web gateway. Enhanced threat protection and email security are all included with a cloud-based web gateway.
- Web Security Censornet This content filter’s primary objective is to eliminate objectionable language and pictures. This utility has the capability of decrypting encrypted communications.
- Barracuda Web Security Gateway An SSL traffic inspection and content filtering tool that may be used remotely. To protect against a wide range of online dangers, it employs antivirus, advanced threat, anti-malware, and anti-spyware.
- Forcepoint Web Security Forcepoint is a cloud-powered security gateway that may enhance your online security by providing features such as data loss prevention, cloud sandboxing, URL filtering, and sophisticated malware detection.
- McAfee Web Gateway One of the most widely used tools for online blocking and virus prevention. Inspecting SSL, HTTPS, and HTTP traffic may be done using its extensive capabilities.
- FortiProxy This online threat intelligence solution for small and medium-sized enterprises includes web filtering, DNS filtering, antivirus, intrusion prevention, and data loss protection.
- N-able Mail Assure N-Mail able’s Assure system, which was formerly provided by SolarWinds MSP, is an ideal tool for MSPs to provide their customers with an additional service.
- Zscaler Web Security When it comes to enterprise-level Web security, Zscaler’s Secure Web Gateway is hard to beat. It includes a dedicated firewall, a URL filtering capability as well as security tools like antivirus and antispam.
How do Secure Web Gateways Work?
Using secure web gateways is an essential part of your IT security strategy to prevent sophisticated assaults from accessing your internal network and your end-users.
To safeguard your company from threats such as ransomware and phishing, SWG functions as a protective barrier that prevents these threats from gaining access to your network. You may avoid data loss by monitoring the information that leaves your internal network and travels to the internet using the newest advancements in SWG technologies.
When it comes to restricting network users’ access to sensitive data, SWG excels at letting you exercise fine-grained control. Digital transformation may be safeguarded by connecting directly to the cloud and establishing secure connections to SaaS, cloud platforms, and the internet using a specific SWG tool.
The Best Secure Web Gateways
1. Perimeter 81 Secure Gateway (ACCESS FREE TRIAL)
The Perimeter 81 Secure Web Gateway provides a high level of protection for your company’s network and all of its interfaces. Internal networks may be protected against harmful and deadly threats and assaults conveyed via different gaps using this technology.
It can identify and prevent bogus websites that spoof authentic sites and steal user information. As a result, the network is protected against impostor sites, which might expose the user’s credentials and other sensitive information to hackers. Filtering rules may be put up to apply your company’s policy on internet use and access. You have full control over your internal network’s security settings since you may block access for various personnel.
With the cloud platform of Perimeter 81 SWG, the agile dashboard may be used to its full potential. Employees operating from distant places may also benefit from the software’s adaptability in terms of increasing their level of security. Your company’s network, not the tool itself, is protected by a background agent. Your remote workers’ devices will be more secure thanks to this technology. Security elements like internet privacy and DNS filtering make it an excellent tool for protecting your company data from dangers that firewalls cannot.
To make an informed purchasing choice, you should try out the sample version first. You can start with access to the free demo.
2. ManageEngine Browser Security Plus (FREE TRIAL)
ManageEngine Browser Security Plus administration in full control over their network’s browser usage, security, and policies. Currently, the platform supports a wide range of Chromium-based browsers, such as Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Google Chrome.
Key Features
- Completely free version
- Collects browser statistics
- Remote browser management at scale
The application gives administrators total control and visibility into metrics such as bandwidth usage, add-on installs, and potential threats. Easily manage browser extensions with a few clicks to deploy add-ins and remove potential bloatware.
From the admin console sysadmins can ensure their network’s compliance by enabling security policies that block phishing attacks, known bad actor sites, and inappropriate content company-wide. With that said, making exceptions for particular users or devices can be done in just a few clicks.
Pros:
- Easily to manage and deploy across large networks
- Collects browser statistics and usage
- Includes support for various popular browsers
- Easily add and remove browser extensions
Cons:
- Can take time to explore all management features
Download a fully-featured 30-day free trial of the ManageEngine Browser Security Plus.
3. Symantec Secure Gateway
Symantec Secure Gateway combines data protection with secure online access to create a strong security solution for your business. Additional powerful security features include email security and other sophisticated threat protection, as well as security blockers for cloud access. You may verify encrypted communication and authenticate traffic with the aid of Symantec’s threat detection capabilities.
Symantec’s real-time threat information can help keep your security wall up to date to protect your internal environment from the most recent attacks. The anti-malware software developed by Symantec makes use of image analysis and machine learning to guard against online threats. A total of 1.2 billion queries are handled by Symantec security services each day from its nine operational centers. Hybrid computing environments may benefit greatly from this strategy. With the aid of the Symantec Secure Gateway, you can automate threat remediation.
4. Censornet Web Security
Web content may be blocked using Censornet Web Security, a cloud-based web security service. An anti-virus and anti-malware tool is installed to prevent the downloading of illegal, harmful, and inappropriate images. Automated adult picture detection with low false positives is now possible with our new add-on that blends artificial intelligence and deep learning.
Increasingly advanced malware and threat information are employed to counteract more advanced assaults. Encrypted SSL/TLS communication provides an additional layer of security. Censornet Web Security’s average response time is 35 milliseconds, making it ideal for businesses that need quick service.
Censornet Web Security’s Guest and Captive portals may be used to control security throughout the network. The user may build policies and apply them to particular network devices. Access to certain devices may be restricted or permitted by using categories, groups, and keywords.
5. Barracuda Web Security Gateway
Barracuda Web Security Gateway is an excellent choice if you want to maintain your company’s network free of viruses and malware. SSL-encrypted communication may be inspected by the application, and internet content can be remotely censored. The Barracuda Web Security Gateway utilizes a wide range of security measures, including anti-virus and anti-spyware.
For example, Barracuda Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) uses a cryptographic hash database to check incoming files for dangerous behavior. Since any files that don’t match are sent to a virtual sandbox for verification, the network as a whole is safe.
Dashboards enable you to track both threats and user activity on the platform. The app will inform you through an alert if there is a security breach. When an event is over, you may look back on the results with the help of a reporting feature.
6. Forcepoint Web Security Gateway
Forcepoint is a cloud-powered security gateway that may enhance your online security by providing features such as data loss prevention, cloud sandboxing, URL filtering, and sophisticated malware detection. Its powerful classification engine leverages several ML, analytics, and behavioral baselines to identify advanced threats on the Internet.
The main line of defense for network security is the tool’s powerful malware detection technology. To restore the network to its pre-malware condition, it leverages cloud sandboxing. Your company’s security ecosystem benefits from its superior threat detection and identification capabilities, which are accurate to within one microsecond. You must have access to your critical data, and the data prevention system makes sure that doesn’t happen. Once you acquire a license for Forcepoint Web Security, you may expand the number of users.
7. McAfee Web Gateway
Its excellent anti-malware features set McAfee Web Gateway apart as a well-known internet filtering solution. Internet connections (HTTP, HTTPS, and SSL) are examined by McAfee Web Gateway. To put it another way, even in the most obscure corners of the internet, technology can spot potential dangers.
McAfee Web Gateway also provides outstanding antivirus protection. The McAfee Global Threat Intelligence can help you check the reputation of files and identify infestations (GTI). McAfee GTI uses a reputation score to identify websites, emails, and IP addresses that pose the most risk.
McAfee Web Gateway has security safeguards in place to keep your network safe from data breaches. To avoid the loss of firm assets, outbound traffic is inspected for data loss prevention. Data saved in the cloud is protected against illegal access by using encryption.
8. FortiProxy Web Gateway
Secure Web Gateway solution FortiProxy is a stand-alone product from Fortinet. FortiProxy provides data leak prevention, antivirus, browser filtering, DNS filtering, and application limits. Traffic shaping and caching, ICAP Client/Server protocol compatibility and remote VPN access are also included. To leverage zero-trust web surfing, virtual sandboxing, and central reporting, it must be integrated with Fortinet’s Security Fabric.
SSH and SSL traffic is rigorously inspected by the Secure Web Gateway to identify threats that might otherwise go unnoticed. All Active/Passive and Active/Active clusters (up to 8) may use either transparent or explicit L2/L3 deployments for failover and single cache collaborative storage. FortiGuard Labs, with over 200 researchers in 31 countries, supports Threat Intelligence by finding new threats. Over 150,000 URLs are blocked every minute by the FortiGuard web filtering program. Websites may be banned or whitelisted based on their content.
Authenticated web application control allows for the specification of user access controls. Users and groups may set restrictions on social media sites, for example. This program may be used to run up to 3,000 different apps. To keep sensitive files from falling into the wrong hands, there is data loss prevention (these files can also be watermarked or fingerprinted).
9. N-able Mail assure System
N-able now provides the N-able Mail Assure solution, which was formerly offered by SolarWinds MSP. MSPs have the option of offering Mail Assure as an add-on service. Customer agreement is required to incorporate technician supervision in an MSP’s price plan for selling Mail Assure. Mail Assure is an excellent tool to have if you’re in charge of an IT department. The fact that N-able provides this service to MSPs does not exclude your use of it as well.
Using a VPN, all MSP customers’ emails must be routed via the N-able mail system, which is hosted on N-able servers. Incoming emails are first routed via the Mail Assure server and then sent to the client’s PC over a virtual private network (VPN). This, too, is the way it works. Servers at the Mail Assure server immediately scan for threats including spam and phishing attempts, as well as address spoofing when an email intended for a customer arrives. Malicious information and links are also screened.
N-able builds a threat intelligence database from the threats it observes on its clients throughout the globe. Using a centralized attack profile, any danger that is discovered in one region of the globe may be utilized to defend all users of Mail Assure.
It also scans for common attack signatures and a blacklist of email addresses that have been obtained. Continuity and archiving are not the only capabilities offered by the edge service. A copy of every email sent or received is automatically archived and may be accessed at any time. All accounts on the protected system have access to online mailboxes as part of the continuity service. This implies that even if the primary email server goes down, all users will still be able to send and receive emails.
10. Zscaler Secure Web Gateway
There are several security features built into the powerful Zscaler Secure Web Gateway for your business, including an integrated firewall with URL filtering and antivirus and anti-spam protection in the cloud. Zscaler provides you with the most up-to-date and comprehensive security available, with more than 120000 security updates applied each day.
One of Zscaler’s distinguishing features is its thorough examination and inspection of SSL traffic. Security is enhanced with a 60-threat intelligence stream and a strong spam filter. Antivirus software uses signatures gleaned from threat feeds to keep tabs on emerging dangers to your company’s environment. Prioritizing crucial applications over less important traffic is a feature of Zscaler’s web security.
Zscaler also provides data security measures that may help you prevent data loss or destruction in the event of a variety of threats. To keep your internal network secure, file type restrictions and a cloud application security blocker are the tools you need. Using the Zscaler cloud, you may surf the web without fear of being hacked or targeted by malware. Zscaler’s security solution is scalable and safe, allowing you to connect many devices to the network. To learn more about Zscaler’s pricing and plans, you may reach out to the company directly.
Conclusion
A Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is a contemporary business’s best defense against cyberattacks. You may protect your network, data, and systems by using a solid SWG solution from the above list. Here, we’ve talked about the need of keeping an eye on IT infrastructure and highlighted some of the technologies that can be used to do so, such as Perimeter 81 secure gateways.
Consider Perimeter 81 secure gateway if you are searching for simplicity, ease of usage, and affordability. To get a solid system with a good web interface, several modules, and a low-price tag, choose Perimeter 81 secure gateway. Every part of your data center, company, and network may be monitored with the aid of these technologies. To see for yourself, we propose that you get a free download/trial of the software. In conclusion, Perimeter 81 secure gateway is the best option for both small and expanding businesses looking for a simple yet effective secure web gateway.