Companies today need to know the difference between a secure web gateway vs firewall. Also, they need to know how to implement both. Why? Find out below.
Secure Web Gateway vs Firewall
To begin, what does each one mean? A secure web gateway refers to a security appliance that is used to connect multiple locations. A firewall is a network device or collection of devices that filter traffic based on rules and access control lists.
So what are the differences? A Web Gateway uses deep packet inspection to scan traffic for malicious or dangerous content. It provides prevention against website malware as well as malware hosted in cloud services. It can also analyze encrypted traffic to detect malicious code and prevent unauthorized access attempts. Because it uses deep packet inspection, it can also scan traffic for data leaks and other privacy violations.
On the other hand, the firewall is designed to protect your network from outside attacks. It allows safe passage of data while filtering out malicious communication, spam, and other threats. It can also be used to restrict access to the network through certain ports or applications such as email, VoIP, and file sharing.
How is a Web Gateway different from a Web Application Firewall?
The Web Application Firewall (WAF) is designed specifically to protect web applications against attacks including SQL injection, cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, and other common threats that target web apps. They are usually installed on the web server itself. They require software changes to your web application’s codebase. Whereas a Web Gateway does not require any changes to the existing infrastructure or code base.
How do you implement them? A Web Gateway should be implemented with an SLA (service level agreement) that clearly defines the response time for an outage. And how it will be notified during an outage.
The SLA should also define who will be responsible for maintaining the appliance, when updates are due, as well as how often they should occur. It should also define what happens with data in the case of an outage.
On the other hand, implementing web application firewalls requires some form of support from the developer or the web application team. It also needs some form of training for the staff that will be handling the firewall.
Which One Is Better?
Web Gateways are generally designed to filter out malware, spyware, and other threats that are common on the internet. It can also scale to millions of users and provide many layers of protection.
Whereas a web application firewall is usually designed as a first layer of defense against attacks on web applications. They can also be used in conjunction with a Web Gateway to provide additional layers of protection
So, which one is better? It depends on what you are trying to protect and what your threat model looks like. The ideal scenario would be to have both in place at all times.
A web gateway should always be used as the first line of defense against attacks and as a fail-safe if an attack gets through. A Web Application Firewall should be used as a means to reduce solutions/patching expenses. While ensuring compliance with various regulations such as