How Does Web Security Work?
Web security is enforced by a security appliance that acts as a web proxy, sitting between users and the Internet. This appliance can either be an on-premises or cloud-based appliance or software deployed within the user’s web browser. Yet all that matters is that an employee’s computer is configured to send all Internet-bound traffic through the web security system.
The web security solution’s location between a web user and the Internet provides it with a deep level of visibility and control over web traffic. All traffic flowing through it can be inspected at the application layer for malicious content or for actions that violate corporate policy. Approved traffic can continue on to its intended destination, while anything else can be dropped.
What Does Web Security Include?
A web security solution should provide comprehensive protection to users against web-related cyber threats. Some of the essential features of a web security solution include:
- URL Filtering: Cybercriminals use a variety of known-bad URLs as part of phishing campaigns or to deliver malware. URL filtering makes it possible to block users from visiting these known-bad and other inappropriate sites and to enforce bandwidth limitations on certain types of sites (such as video streaming).
- Application Control: Web security solutions perform traffic inspection at the application layer, which means that they have insight into the application generating the traffic and the data that it contains. This granular visibility makes it possible for web administrators to define application-specific rules to ensure that access to applications and sensitive data is properly controlled both inside and outside of the organization.
- Data Loss Prevention: Exfiltration of sensitive and proprietary data can occur in a variety of ways and carries significant costs to an organization. Data loss prevention (DLP) solutions monitor data flows to block potential leakages of sensitive and valuable information.
- Antivirus: Malicious websites are a major delivery vector for malware such as ransomware, trojans, and information stealers. The antivirus built into a web security solution will inspect all traffic flowing through it to determine if it contains known malware samples identified by unique signatures.
- SSL Introspection: A growing percentage of web traffic uses HTTPS, which encrypts the traffic to protect it against eavesdropping. SSL introspection allows an organization’s security solutions to inspect this encrypted web traffic, enabling them to detect and block malicious content and data exfiltration.
The web can be a dangerous place, and it poses significant risks to an organization and its employees. A web security solution needs a wide range of features to provide effective protection against these threats.
Benefits of Web Security
A web security solution has deep visibility and granular control over Internet-bound traffic. It inspects traffic at the application layer, providing a better understanding of its function and the data that it contains. These capabilities provide a number of benefits to an organization and its employees, such as:
- Malicious Content Protection: Web security blocks known-bad phishing sites and drive-by downloads, and inspects web traffic for malicious content. This helps to protect employees against malware and other threats.
- Data Security: DLP solutions monitor movement of an organization’s sensitive data. This helps to ensure that sensitive and valuable data is not exposed to unauthorized users.
- Regulatory Compliance: Companies need to comply with an ever-increasing number of data protection regulations. Web security solutions help with this by providing increased visibility and control for sensitive and protected data within an organization’s possession.
- Improved Network Performance: Application control enables network administrators to apply application-specific policies. This allows throttling and blocking of certain sites and traffic, improving the network performance for legitimate business traffic.
- Secure Remote Work: Web security solutions enable remote employees to work securely from anywhere. Companies can apply and enforce corporate security policies on employee devices regardless of their location.
Web Security with Harmony Browse
With the rise in remote work, an effective, scalable, and accessible web security solution is more important than ever. With employees working from home – potentially on personally-owned devices – the potential for malware infections via the Internet has increased. An unprotected and compromised remote device creates significant risks to data security, the corporate network, and the employee using it.
Securely supporting a remote workforce means that companies need a web security solution designed with remote workers in mind. Check Point’s Harmony Browse is a browser-based web security solution that provides remote workers with a wide range of protections against Internet threats without compromising network performance.
To see the capabilities of Harmony Browse for yourself, check out this video. And in order to learn how Harmony Browse can improve the security of your remote employees, you’re welcome to request a free demo.
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