The web is a term widely known and commonly used. Almost every country in the world is using the web as its backbone. No one can imagine the world without the internet nowadays. But what people do not understand is the threats and risks that come along with such massive involvement of the internet in every activity.

Previously, only antivirus software was considered to serve the purpose of a shield against every cyberattack or virus. But as the technology advanced, so did the cybercrimes. There was a need to have a secure web gateway to handle and monitor the traffic vigilantly. Sangfor and other reputed companies have developed reliable gateways to make sure that users enjoy web surfing without having the fear of cybercriminals. Following are some of the numerous benefits that secure web gateways offer:

Security against malicious websites

Sangfor secure web gateway provides solid protection against illegal websites. This means that the software checks its database for registered website URLs and then decides if the website that the user has selected to access, is clean or malicious. Many websites appear authentic and professional, but in fact, they are designed to spread malicious content like Trojans and viruses.

A gateway will help filter such websites and either remove them from the result list or inform or alert the user before accessing such websites. Main examples of such websites include shopping websites or streaming websites that are commonly accessed by people, and not only accessed, but people also provide their credentials and sensitive data in their forms.

Traffic Control

Another great feature that a secure web gateway provides is the traffic control option. It monitors the traffic and then applies various traffic management algorithms to make sure that the users do not face bottleneck issues. Though this feature is not a must-have in all gateways. Specific companies like Sangfor offer these additional benefits with their advanced gateways. This feature is extremely useful in organizations where there are multiple users and heavy network traffic becomes a problem.

Encrypted data checking

With different web advancements, most of the data that is sent over the internet these days is encrypted. This was a great step at first because it protected many cyberattacks and protect sensitive data from hackers.

But this also created a performance issue related to the firewall. Firewalls had to decrypt the data using standard decryption algorithms to check if it contains any malicious data or not. This required time and relatively greater processing power, which caused a massive decline in system performance.

A secure gateway is an effective solution against such issues because it compares the data and its nature to make sure that no suspicious content is passing through, without affecting the performance of the overall network and systems.

Social Media Scanning

Almost all businesses run social media profiles. Not only those, but people also run marketing advertisements on these platforms that significantly boost their sales. But this social media interaction with your organization and its data is also a significant threat if it goes wrong. Therefore, a secure web gateway makes sure that every information that travels both ways is secure.

Network Support

Although HTTPS protocol is largely used today and is considered the standard for web development because of its security and useful features. Yet other internet protocols are still in use like FTP, HTTP, etc. Sangfor and other productions make sure that the gateway supports all protocols without any compatibility issue.

Other antivirus and antimalware software

If you use a secure web gateway, there might be no need of installing other software for the protection of systems. Though the security extent may vary from company to company that produces these gateways. But always go for the ones that have these antivirus and antimalware software embedded in them.

People usually underestimate their need for these protection features because they claim that their organizations work fine with independent antivirus software. But secure web gateways like from Sangfor can help fight against many zero-day vulnerabilities which many software programs fail to recognize.

Easy deployment

Secure web gateway is not intended usually only for one option. Organizations can deploy it either at user ends, in the cloud, or at the network edge, making it easier for users to design their organization style accordingly.

Sandbox Technique

For those websites and applications, which the secure web gateway cannot categorize as legal or malicious, the system runs the URL on its sandbox and then analyzes its nature. This is the best practice that can catch malicious software and especially zero-day vulnerabilities, saving the organization from many threats. Secure web gateway uses a proxy to identify network data. Therefore, there is almost no chance that any data passes through the gateway unchecked.

Outgoing Traffic Checking

Many times, an organization sends normal data through a system to any server outside. It may contain credit card information, personal passwords, and sensitive information. This information is always checked to be sent to the authentic receiver.

Also, even if the information being sent is not so sensitive, malicious Trojans or viruses may attach the organization’s crucial data with the sent items without bringing it in the knowledge of the sender. In such cases, Sangfor secure web gateway helps a lot. It can either block the data completely or alert the sender that the information contains sensitive data.

Conclusion

There are numerous benefits to having a secure web gateway installed. With advancements in web development, there was a dire need for a secure gateway to handle everything by itself instead of having to install every component and antivirus separately for every end-user. Secure web gateway has resolved a dozen of problems and is serving at its best capacity. Sangfor and other reputed companies are successfully developing these gateways. It makes the work of an organization very easy and eliminates the constant fear of cyberattacks. Only after having a network and organizational relief, can a business focus on its products and success.