What Is Web Security?
In its simplest definition, web security gives organizations visibility and protection from website and web application cyber threats. Every day malicious websites, phishing, and drive-by downloads work to evade detection and harm organizations. It’s near impossible to find an organization that does not utilize web-based applications for day-to-day functions, which is why web remains a lucrative route for cyberattacks.
Website security solutions can also perform URL filtering, which controls where users go online, how long they spend on websites, and what they upload and download – protecting intellectual property and sensitive data.
The need for website security is great and should never be overlooked when determining cybersecurity requirements.
The loss of data or accidental exposure of data can have detrimental effects on an organization. To prevent data breaches, an adaptive data loss prevention solution for web, social media, and cloud applications should be selected. Features would include real-time monitoring, inspection, and redaction technology, which blocks or removes only the confidential information, while allowing the rest of the web traffic to continue without disruptive blocking or false positives. Organizations should also be sure they are optimized for data privacy and regulatory compliance (PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, etc.).
Data breaches not only have consequences of hefty fines but also have a surge of repercussions including:
- Financial Penalties – Fines, while significant, are only one aspect of monetary loss. Rebuilding trust between stakeholders can be significantly more expensive.
- Operational Disruption – It’s no secret that after a data breach, operations of an organization are heavily disrupted including the time it takes a forensic team to discover just how big the problem is.
- Reputational Damage – Nowadays news travels fast. A survey found that more than 60% of consumers lose trust in an organization as a result of a security breach.
What Is a Secure Web Gateway?
A Secure Web Gateway (SWG) enforces internet policy compliance and protects from unwanted internet cyber threats. It balances the need to protect critical information entering and exiting an organization while collaborating with outside parties.
The choice of three anti-virus engines with cloud-based lookups and heuristics stops known and unknown malware infections with bi-directional virus and anti-malware scanning.
SWG also prevents employee access to uncategorized, high-risk URLs or inappropriate sites with real-time categorization and advanced URL filtering thereby protecting the organization from inside and unintentional threats.
Another feature of SWG is Data loss prevention (DLP). For example, hidden metadata can be removed from documents while being uploaded and images can be scanned to stop sensitive information from leaking out.
Content can also be redacted allowing communication to continue without the sensitive information or policies being compromised. The combination of content and context aware policies in SWG dramatically reduces the opportunity for false positives, allowing less resources to manage an efficient DLP strategy.
Already have an existing web proxy or a firewall that acts as a proxy?
Often times organizations already have a web proxy – a server that provides a gateway between users and the internet. While this provides security to an organization, web proxies alone leave security risks for data loss as new attacks are constantly emerging to defeat traditional solutions. A Secure ICAP Gateway (SIG) is a fully automated solution that augments the security of critical information flowing through an organization’s existing web proxy infrastructure.
Features of a strong SIG include:
- Bi-directional features that restrict sharing of unauthorized data while minimizing false positives that can restrict business productivity.
- Forward and reverse proxy mode which provides comprehensive protection for both inbound and outbound activity.
- Data redaction which automatically removes sensitive data or critical information from documents and images.
Web Security for Cloud Applications
Working away from the office brings a new risk for many organizations as employees use cloud-based applications like Dropbox. A web security solution that tracks, traces, and secures information stored or downloaded from the cloud (i.e., Office 365, Salesforce.com, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) is critical. Having bi-directional sanitization will prevent the leaking of confidential information, while putting an immediate stop to malware attacks.
Related Resources
Benefits of Web Security Solutions from Clearswift
Modern organizations cannot expect to be successful without a web security solution in place as data breaches continue to be more significant and cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated.
Clearswift offers web security products to suit an organization's needs. The Secure Web Gateway provides a single solution for web filtering, malware protection, DLP, and ensuring regulatory compliance. Whereas the Secure ICAP Gateway adds DLP and advanced threat protection to existing web infrastructures.
Web Security Simplified
Businesses of any size can now rely a single solution for web filtering, malware protection, DLP and compliance. Clearswift's web security solutions offers an unprecedented level of detection and sanitization that can be added on to your existing security gateways or deployed based on your environment – cloud, virtual or gateway appliance.