Turn Your Secure Web Gateway to be Fantastic. How often have you tried to connect to a secure web gateway only to discover it was down or not working at all?
Or maybe you’ve had to deal with slow connection speeds because the gateways weren’t configured properly? And let’s face it, web security has always been a pain – whether you want to access private websites or simply log into your bank account.
To ensure your customers can safely browse your site, you’ll need to implement a reliable, high-performance web server. Fortunately, there are several options available today. This guide will show you how to configure a secure web gateway.
What’s a Secure Web Gateway?
First of all, it’s important to understand what a secure web gateway is. A secure web gateway is a server that examines data packets as they pass through. Also, allowing only legal packets your website to receive. The server can also implement basic security features, such as authentication and encryption.
The easiest way to think of a secure web gateway is as a bouncer at a nightclub. If you try to enter the club without being on the guest list, or if you try to sneak in through the back door, you’ll be denied entry by the bouncer.
In the same way, a secure web gateway blocks unauthorized users from accessing your private network. This will effectively safeguard your company’s information, and your customers’ personal information, from intruders and hackers.
A secure web gateway can also encrypt sensitive data – such as credit card numbers. Especially, sent from your website to the client’s browser before it leaves your network and travels over the internet. Encryption ensures that personal information cannot be intercepted and read by unauthorized parties.
It’s imperative to protect customer data because if this information was exposed, it could result in fines, lawsuits and lost business – not to mention bad publicity.
Types of Web Gateways
There are two types of web gateways: proxy servers and VPNs. A proxy server is typically located on your local network (in other words, inside your firewall). A VPN is an external device that sits between your server and the internet so it can examine every packet entering or exiting your network.
Both types of devices use similar security features; however, they differ in how they implement them. For example, with VPNs, you must configure each user account individually while with proxies you must configure each computer that will access your site individually (as well as configure the proxy server itself).
So which should you choose? Well, both servers have their pros and cons so keep reading for more information!
Although you have lots of options when it comes to setting up a secure web gateway let me save you some time by offering my top recommendation: StrongSwan VPN Server. It’s open-source software that runs on Linux systems (so you don’t need Windows) and has everything you need for easy site-to-site VPNs or IPsec VPNs – plus it’s free!