Consider a gateway security platform if you’re looking for a way to protect your business from cyberattacks. These solutions prevent unsecured web traffic from entering your network and analyze it to identify malicious content.
These secure gateways include URL filtering, malware detection, and data loss prevention. Some even incorporate sandboxing to block zero-day threats.
Detecting Malware
A secure web gateway (SWG) is essential for detecting malware and phishing attacks. It prevents unauthorized traffic from entering your network and monitors internet traffic to enforce company policies. It can also block content, limit bandwidth use, or implement a policy restricting access to websites and applications.
SWGs can detect malware by decrypting encrypted HTTPS traffic and inspecting it for malicious code. This is a critical function, as many cyberattacks today use encrypted traffic to steal sensitive information.
Some SWGs also have policy enforcement capabilities that allow you to monitor employees’ internet usage and restrict access to websites, applications, or specific URLs. This will enable you to protect your company from employee data breaches and reduce the risk of malware spreading from one employee to the next.
Other SWGs can also use sandboxing to run suspicious web server code and malicious codes in a virtual environment that mimics your network. This is a great way to detect and block zero-day threats not caught by other methods, such as AV or AML.
The best SWGs are also able to inspect traffic in real-time. They analyze each web request for phrases or patterns matching data, such as credit card information, social security numbers, medical data, or intellectual property.
Detecting Phishing Attacks
Cybercriminals commonly use phishing attacks to access sensitive data like account information, credit card numbers and login credentials. They often start with an email that imitates a trustworthy or legitimate organization, then convinces users to reveal their sensitive data.
These malicious emails often contain links that take victims to impostor websites or sites containing malware. The malware may be installed on their computer, leading to identity theft and data loss.
Detecting phishing attacks requires sophisticated tools and training. Companies that educate their employees on phishing red flags and implement security solutions-driven phishing detection can help reduce successful compromises.
The gateway security platform combines the power of human detection with advanced automated responses to quickly detect phishing attacks that would usually evade your secure email gateway solution. This enables your security teams to respond faster and more effectively to the highest-priority threats and helps prevent and mitigate new threats before they can cause significant damage.
Researchers found that most phishing domains and URLs don’t appear in phishing block lists for hours or even days after detection. This led the team to develop a new engine that leverages Akamai’s cloud-based phishing detection technology to identify brand-new phishing pages in real-time, even when they aren’t in any phishing block lists.
Combined with a continuous phishing training methodology, this approach effectively reduces the number of successful phishing attacks and malware infections by up to 90%. The solution also includes reporting and analytics that can be used to identify the areas where phishing education and simulations can be enhanced.
Detecting Fraud
Fraud is an issue for many businesses, especially those that sell goods and services online. A Gateway Security Platform can help protect your business from fraud by identifying fraudulent transactions and blocking them in real-time before they happen.
Some secure web gateways are software-only and are deployed on-premise; others are cloud-based SaaS applications. They can be run as standalone systems or with a network firewall, IPS, antivirus, and other security solutions.
These platforms use malware detection, URL filtering and other means to prevent malicious websites from calling home, stealing intellectual property or accessing sensitive data. They also block sites that impersonate legitimate sites to gain credentials for corporate accounts and networks.
Another way that a gateway can detect fraud is by using artificial intelligence and data analytics to monitor shopping behavior and identify high-risk orders. Its algorithms then evaluate orders and send them to a human review team to determine if they are fraudulent.
Depending on the specific gateway, it can also perform reverse email lookups or use data enrichment tools to create holistic profiles of customers. This helps confirm a customer’s identity before shipping them their merchandise.
These features can be a great addition to any SWG, but they may pose challenges for IT teams. They require specific programming skills and can make implementing new fraud prevention rules difficult. They also limit flexibility and agility.
Detecting Botnets
The best way to protect your business from botnets is to detect them before they cause any damage. This requires a combination of solutions, including host-based IDS and anti-malware systems and network-based botnet detection tools.
One method uses a secure web gateway (SWG) that inspects traffic as it flows in and out of your network or the cloud. Some SWGs can also decrypt HTTPS traffic to scan it for malware.
In addition to detecting botnets, a gateway security platform can protect your business against ingress and egress threats by blocking access to malicious sites. This includes inbound and outbound web browsing and any data sent via email or mobile devices, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or VPNs.
A gateway can be a software or hardware-based solution on your network perimeter or endpoint devices. It can also be a cloud-based solution, which enables your IT team to deploy and manage the SWG as needed.
In the past, botnet detection relied on finding and shutting down the Command & Control (C&C) servers that acted as the point of contact for infected computers. Law enforcement agencies and security vendors often track the bots’ communications back to these servers and force service providers to shut them down. However, this approach can be costly and time-consuming. Instead, a modern system is to focus on the peer-to-peer communication methods that the bots use.
