Improve Secure Web Gateway. How secure is your web gateway? Is it vulnerable to hackers or other malicious attacks? If yes, then it is time to upgrade your web gateway security system.
Web gateways are the front line defense against cyberattacks. They provide the connection between your network and the Internet. Hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in these devices to gain access to sensitive information.
Web gateways are vulnerable to a variety of attacks like phishing, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, buffer overflows, denial of service attacks and session hijacking.
It is crucial to ensure your web gateway has the latest security updates and patches to prevent such threats.
Given below are certain steps that you can follow to improve the security of your web gateway.
1. Know Your Web Gateway’s Strengths and Weaknesses
Before upgrading your web gateway’s security system, you need to have a clear understanding of your device’s strengths and weaknesses. Check what security features it supports like firewalls, antivirus and intrusion detection systems.
Know whether the web gateway is running on any operating system like Linux or Windows. This will help you install the right antivirus and firewall software.
2. Harden Your Web Gateway Against External Threats
Install a firewall and antivirus software on your web gateway. These tools can protect your network from external cyberattacks like port scans, DoS attacks and malicious code injections.
A firewall restricts unauthorized access to your network by controlling traffic flow between a personal computer or local area network (LAN) and other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It can block malicious traffic that contains viruses, Trojan horses or worms from reaching your network nodes.
You can choose from a variety of firewalls available in the market like Check Point Firewall-1, Cisco PIX Firewall, Cisco IOS Firewall, Fortigate Firewall etc.
3. Harden Your Web Gateway Against Internal Threats
Intrusion detection systems can monitor traffic in real-time and alert you if they detect any malicious activity in your system. It could be an intruder trying to access confidential information or a hacker trying to gain control over your web gateway.
4. Enable Web Gateway’s Security Logging
If you do not have an auditing mechanism in place for monitoring web gateway activities then you will not know if someone has hacked into it or not. It is very important that you set up log monitoring on your web gateway so that you can track all activity related to the device including failed login attempts or access violations etc.
5. Configure Secure Authentication Mechanism
It is important to configure secure authentication mechanisms for logging into your web gateway because many users use weak passwords for accessing their devices which makes them vulnerable to hacking.
6. Encrypt Sensitive Data
Do not store any sensitive data that is critical to your business on your web gateway. It should be encrypted to avoid its misuse by hackers.
7. Train Your Employees
Regularly conduct training sessions for employees and teach them how to protect their web gateway against cyberattacks. If your employees are aware of the latest security threats, they can take necessary measures to protect the device and your business from such attacks.
Training creates awareness among employees and makes them confident about their tasks and responsibilities. They will be able to protect the network from cyberattacks by taking precautionary measures.