8 Best Secure Web Gateway Solutions for Small to Big Businesses

Hey there!

As your resident cybersecurity geek, I want to have a little chat about secure web gateways.

Now I know web security sounds boring. But stay with me! Because SWGs can save your business from nasty cyberattacks and data breaches.

See, the web today is like a giant mall with some awesome shops but also shady back-alleys. You want your business to visit the good sites that are helpful and productive. But block the bad ones that can infect your computers or steal your data.

This is exactly what a secure web gateway does! It guides your business safely through the complex web like a trusty mall cop. Pretty neat right?

In this guide, I‘ll tell you everything you need to know about SWGs in simple terms:

• What SWG is and how it works
• Why every business needs SWG protection
• An expert review of the top 8 SWG solutions
• Tips for choosing the right SWG as per your needs

I‘ll also share some real-world stats, data, and insights from my experience as a cybersecurity analyst.

So grab a snack and let‘s get started!

What is a Secure Web Gateway?

A secure web gateway or SWG acts like a security guard between your business network and the wild internet.

It checks all internet traffic heading in and out of your network to allow only the good stuff and block the bad.

The aim of SWG solutions is to stop cyberattacks and data theft attempts over the web. It does this using methods like:

• Scanning traffic for malware, viruses, and other threats
• Filtering access to risky or unproductive websites
• Enforcing your security policies consistently across the network
• Preventing unauthorized access attempts to your data and apps

SWGs can be deployed either as physical hardware appliances installed on your premises or as cloud-based software.

But in both cases, they function similarly by filtering web traffic against allowlists and blocklists configured by your security team.

Here‘s a simple example:

When a user tries to access a website, the request first goes to the SWG instead of the actual site.

The SWG checks if the site is approved based on your security policies. If yes, it is allowed.

But any request to shadowy sites like malware download portals is blocked immediately. The gateway also scans the content for threats before delivery.

This allows your business to permit only access to trusted and productive websites. At the same time, risks from compromised sites are eliminated.

Pretty neat right? With an SWG watching the gates, you can work safely without worrying about web-based attacks.

Now let‘s look at some key SWG capabilities in more detail.

Main Features of Secure Web Gateways

SWG solutions typically contain advanced security technologies and controls like:

Website Filtering

Allow or block access to website categories like gambling, malware sites, porn, social media etc. This prevents threats and helps focus work time.

For example, many businesses block sports and entertainment sites to ensure better productivity. High-risk categories like spam URLS and phishing sites are blacklisted as well.

Anti-Malware Scanning

SWG solutions scrutinize web traffic for viruses, worms, spyware, trojans and other malicious code.

This analysis happens before content gets delivered to user devices. So threats are caught before any business systems can get infected.

Bandwidth Management

Your SWG can regulate bandwidth usage by limiting access to non-business sites and bandwidth-heavy apps like Youtube.

This prevents recreational web surfing from congesting your internet links meant for business use. It also reduces internet data costs.

SSL/HTTPS Inspection

SWGs can decrypt, scan and filter SSL encrypted web traffic for hidden threats and attempts to bypass security policies.

See, encryption is meant to protect data but hackers also abuse it to hide malware. SWG stops this.

Data Loss Prevention

Your confidential business data like client details, contracts, trade secrets etc. can be leaked over the web via illegal file transfers.

SWGs can detect and block such data exfiltration attempts to prevent loss of sensitive information.

Application Control

Granular access controls to block, limit or allow access to web apps like social media, messengers, video streaming etc. based on risk and productivity impact.

For example, completely blocking Youtube or limiting use to 30 mins per user daily.

User Authentication

Verify user identity before allowing web access so that security policies can be applied based on user profiles and roles.

For example, stricter policies for user groups like contractors and interns compared to employees.

Security Analytics

SWG provides detailed visibility into organization-wide web traffic patterns by user, device type, domain, app category, risk profile etc.

Business can identify high-risk behavior and fine-tune web security policies using this data.

Centralized Management

Web security policies and controls configured on the centralized SWG dashboard propagate uniformly across the entire distributed network.

This ensures consistent protection irrespective of location – office, home or mobile.

As you can see, SWG solutions offer a ton of critical security capabilities under one hood. This consolidates your web security and lets you manage it uniformly from one interface.

Now that you know what SWGs can do, let‘s discuss why they are important for your business.

Why Every Business Needs a Secure Web Gateway

Back when businesses just used an on-premise network, you could get by with a standard firewall. But in today‘s distributed environments, a traditional firewall is not enough.

As your workforce goes remote and more apps move to the cloud, your attack surface has expanded exponentially. Users are accessing your network and data from everywhere, using home WiFi and personal devices.

So malicious websites, phishing links and infected downloads are just one click away. All it takes is a single careless click by one employee to trigger a data breach.

This is why your business needs the advanced real-time threat prevention that a secure web gateway provides across the extended network, including:

Stop Web-Based Cyberattacks

An SWG acts as the first line of defense by continuously scanning web traffic for the latest advanced threats like zero-day attacks, ransomware, spyware, viruses etc. before they can reach user devices or on-premise systems.

By blocking threats preemptively before they can enter your network, the impact of web-based cyberattacks reduces greatly.

Statistics show web vectors cause over 39% of data breaches. And average breach costs are $4.24 million for enterprises according to IBM. By stopping threats early, SWG can save businesses from massive losses.

Reduce Productivity Losses and Legal Risks

SWG allows blacklisting unproductive or inappropriate websites that can negatively impact work and expose your business to compliance violations and lawsuits.

For example, excessive time spent on sports, shopping, and entertainment sites reduces productivity. Accessing pirated content is illegal. Viewing pornography poses legal risks in a workplace environment.

By blocking access to high-risk domains, SWG reduces productivity loss, reputational damage, and legal liability for businesses.

According to Meta‘s 2022 stats, 1 in 3 people admit spending too much work time on social media. So restricting access can really improve productivity.

Protect Sensitive Business Data

Secure web gateways prevent unauthorized transfer of confidential files and data over the internet. They can detect and block dodgy outbound FTP or email transfers to safeguard your intellectual property and client data from theft.

Attackers often target proprietary company information like product designs, source code, trade secrets, and customer databases to gain illicit competitive advantage. Web gateways thwart such data exfiltration risks and help avoid heavy penalties associated with breach disclosure laws.

According to Verizon‘s 2022 DBIR, misconfigured web apps and stolen credentials cause most security incidents. SWG adds a strong shield of defense.

Enforce Security Policies Uniformly

Traditionally, applying web security was difficult for distributed teams across many locations and devices. But your secure web gateway centralizes policy management and enforcement.

Regardless of whether employees are working remotely from home or connecting from an airport lounge, your SWG ensures all users get the same degree of web security based on centrally configured policies.

Monitor Web Activity Patterns

Secure web gateways give you incredible visibility across your organization‘s web traffic by user, device type, domain category, geolocation, bandwidth usage patterns etc.

Security teams can leverage these usage analytics for identifying high-risk behavior, security gaps, and fine-tuning access policies.

For instance, you can tighten controls if SWG reports show excessive access to unauthorized or suspicious sites by specific users.

Simplify Security Management

Deploying SWG as a cloud-based solution relieves your business from purchasing and maintaining web security infrastructure on-premise.

You simply route your local network and user traffic to the SWG cloud service. Their systems and security experts take care of threat analysis, policy enforcement, backups, upgrades and monitoring 24/7.

For the above reasons, SWG is a must-have network security solution for modern businesses to plug the gaps introduced by remote work and cloud adoption.

Expert Review of the Top SWG Vendors

There are a variety of SWG solutions available from large security vendors to startups that cater to organizations of all sizes:

Large Enterprises: Zscaler, Cisco Umbrella, Forcepoint
Mid-Size Companies: McAfee, NortonLifeLock, Barracuda
Small Businesses: Perimeter 81, Netskope, iboss

I‘ll provide an expert overview of the top options across these segments to help you pick the right fit.

Perimeter 81 (Best for Small Business)

Perimeter 81 is my recommendation for small businesses that want an easy, affordable SWG solution without complex management. Their platform is used by over 1200 customers globally.

It‘s delivered as user-friendly cloud-based software. So there‘s no hardware to maintain. Policies and logs can be accessed anytime from their web dashboard or mobile app.

I like how Perimeter 81 lets you define granular filtering rules to control employee access to risky sites and apps. This helps enforce acceptable use policies without impacting productivity.

The solution also provides useful web analytics like top accessed categories, suspicious traffic flagged, and blacklisted sites visited.

For lean security teams, Perimeter 81 is a fast and economical way to start protecting against web-based threats. Pricing starts at $7 per user/month.

Cisco Umbrella (Enterprise-Grade SWG)

Cisco Umbrella is the gold standard in secure web gateways for large enterprises. It blocks over 100 billion threats annually across their huge client base.

The solution leverages Cisco Talos threat intelligence gathered across multiple vector like web, email, and endpoints. This provides rapid protection against new attacks.

Their cloud-based architecture removes the need for clunky on-premise SWG hardware. You simply redirect your network traffic to the nearest Umbrella point of presence. Encrypted traffic is decrypted before analysis.

I like how Umbrella can ingest logs from firewalls and endpoints to correlate threats seen across other tools. This improves threat hunting and investigation capabilities significantly.

Granular user- and app-level controls allow custom policies based on roles. And their SWG scales seamlessly as your workforce grows. 24/7 support is provided as standard.

Umbrella SWG starts at $12 per user/year for a 3-year plan. So it‘s quite affordable considering the advanced protections and support you get.

McAfee (Optimized for Remote Workforce)

McAfee‘s Secure Web Gateway is purpose-built to protect today‘s distributed organizations with seamless cloud delivery.

Their SWG integrates directly with the McAfee Service Edge infrastructure. This means your web traffic is routed via best-performing points globally for low latency web security.

Malware inspection is done via their hyperscale back-end before content reaches user devices. Suspicious sites can be isolated in remote browser environments.

McAfee SWG has simplified licensing with unified management across their entire security portfolio. So you can enforce web, endpoint, and data protections in tandem easily.

It‘s an affordable cloud-based solution optimized for modern remote-work environments. Pricing starts at $3.33 per user/month on annual plans.

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing an SWG

Picking the right secure web gateway solution for your business depends on several factors:

Deployment Options

• Pure cloud – SaaS model requiring only endpoint or network redirection. Best for simplicity and convenience.

• Physical/virtual appliance – For on-premise management and control of web traffic within your network.

• Hybrid – Web traffic is inspected locally and risky content sent to the cloud for deeper analysis. Provides a balance of on-site and cloud benefits.

Protection Capabilities

• Threat prevention – Strong anti-malware, exploit prevention, phishing defenses etc.

• Data loss prevention – Capabilities to detect and block unauthorized data transfers.

• Network performance – Fast throughput and latency with minimal impact on user experience.

• Evasion prevention – Block attempts to bypass SWG via encrypted traffic and other tactics.

Access Control Flexibility

• Granular policies based on users, groups, AD attributes, IPs, geography, URL/domain categories etc.

• Easy allow-listing and blacklisting of applications, websites, and content types.

• Authentication mechanisms like SAML integration to enforce contextual policies based on user identity.

Management and Analytics

• Detailed visibility into organization-wide web traffic patterns to identify security gaps and risky behavior.

• Centralized policy configuration across multiple locations and automatic enforcement.

• Mobile apps and monitoring tools to quickly respond to threats identified in SWG logs and alerts.

• Easy integration with other network and security solutions through APIs and links.

Choose a vendor that aligns with your specific environment, protection needs, and capabilities you want from web security controls to analytics.

I recommend consulting with security experts as well to determine the right SWG deployment plan for your unique requirements.

Final Thoughts

Hope this guide has helped you to better understand what SWGs do and why they are a must-have network security tool in today‘s threat landscape.

Leading options like Cisco Umbrella, McAfee SWG, and Perimeter 81 make it easy and affordable to get advanced web protections tailored to your business size and needs.

As your friendly cybersecurity geek, my advice is don‘t delay SWG deployment. Threats are rapidly increasing in sophistication. And attackers actively search for vulnerable businesses every second.

An SWG acts as the frontline sentry by stopping web-based threats before they infiltrate your network and lead to damaging data breaches.

So empower your business to safely harness the opportunities of the web for growth while blocking the pitfalls. Stay safe out there and happy browsing!