Secure web gateway secrets revealed. If you want to know what these secrets are, then don’t stop reading this blog post.
Secure Web Gateway Secrets Revealed
To begin, let us define what a secure web gateway (SWG) is. An SWG is a device that sits in between a company’s internal network and the Internet. The device is used to connect to the Internet and can inspect network traffic for policy compliance.
Then, when it comes to hardening such a device, the question arises: what are the best practices to harden the SWG? So today we will try to answer this question. To harden an SWG, it is essential to know what its services are, and how they work. It is also essential to have a good understanding of its vulnerabilities and attack vectors. Without this information, it is impossible to harden an SWG properly.
To learn how to harden an SWG, you need to study its architecture. You need to know how it works and what its components are, to understand it properly.
What Are The Three Components Of a Secure Web Gateway?
The Network Element
The network element is the device that connects the company’s internal network and the Internet. This element has one or more interfaces that connect it directly or indirectly with other networks. These interfaces could be Ethernet ports, serial ports, or wireless transceivers.
Then, it can also have more than one interface for redundancy or load balancing purposes. Moreover, it might even be installed as a part of a larger network device. Such as a firewall or router.
The Security Policy Enforcer
This component enforces security policy rules on all traffic that passes through the SWG. This component is made up of two elements: an inspection engine and a security policy database (SPD). The inspection engine inspects all traffic that passes through the interface(s) of the network element.
Then, it uses predefined security policy rules from a database located in memory, called an SPD. This is to make decisions about whether or not to allow certain traffic through the interface(s) of the network element. If traffic does not meet predefined criteria in the database, then it is discarded by default (unless overridden by user-defined security policy rules).
So any traffic that does not meet predefined criteria ends up being blocked by default.
The Management Process
The management process is the software that runs on the management station to configure, manage, monitor, and troubleshoot the SWG. This software includes a GUI, CLI, and a Web-based interface. All these interfaces use a single configuration database that resides on a local hard drive or remote server.
This means that if this database is compromised, an attacker could potentially compromise the SWG as well. However, to do this, they would need to have physical access to the management station or remote access to the management station via the network element’s GUI/CLI interface (if enabled).
Use a Secure Web Gateway Today
In conclusion, SWG is the best solution for companies to protect their networks from cyber attacks. It protects against threats that are entering the network through the Internet connection. Hence, it is essential to harden SWG to protect your business from cyber-attacks.