In words of Gartner: Secure Web gateway solutions protect Web-surfing PCs from infection and enforce company policies. A secure Web gateway is a solution that filters unwanted software/malware from user-initiated Web/Internet traffic and enforces corporate and regulatory policy compliance.
More than half of web traffic is now cloud related, including 2/3s of threats using cloud delivery.
The main purpose of a Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is to act as a checkpoint that filters internet traffic, protecting an organization's users from web-based threats like malware and phishing, while also enforcing company internet usage policies.
No. While related, a firewall inspects all network traffic based on broader rules, and a proxy acts as a basic intermediary. An SWG is more specialized, focusing on inspecting the content of web traffic at a granular level, offering advanced features like URL filtering, malware scanning, and data loss prevention that traditional firewalls and proxies lack.
Key features of a modern SWG include URL filtering to block malicious sites, advanced threat protection against malware, data loss prevention (DLP) to stop sensitive data leaks, application control to manage SaaS usage, and SSL/TLS inspection to analyze encrypted traffic for hidden threats.
A cloud-based SWG protects remote workers by extending the corporate security perimeter to any location. It ensures that all internet traffic from a remote employee's device is filtered through the company's security policies, providing the same level of protection as if they were in the office.