What is a web gateway, and what does it do? A web gateway is an appliance that sits between the victim’s computer and the Internet, inspecting HTTP requests and responses. It often provides other features such as content filtering (spam) or malware scanning. Web gateways are designed to secure enterprises against external threats that target their employees, such as phishing pages, drive-by downloads, and infected emails.
Since external threats are constantly evolving, many of these devices support dynamic updates that allow them to stay more or less current with the latest attacks. The Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is a part of the new UTM 9 release. The article below will introduce what it is, how to set it up, and where to find the relevant documentation. You can also read about some of the changes made in this new release blog post, where the new upcoming features are mentioned. The Secure Web Gateway (SWG) provides web filtering for HTTP and HTTPS by enforcing acceptable use policies (AUPs) for websites. It also allows you to create additional rules that are not part of the AUP. For example, you might want to allow Facebook but block all adult-related content on it. The web filter supports both blocklist and allowlist filtering in addition to URL filtering and keywords.
The SWG is configured in a centralized way through Sophos UTM and automatically pushes out when configured with an internet connection. It can also be used when you have a local UTM for fail-over purposes.
The web filter works independently of the mail proxy, which is why it can be pushed out to different appliances in a cluster solution without having to push changes to all of them.
What are the benefits of the SWG?
The SWG has the same benefits as other Sophos products. The following list gives some examples:
- By configuring AUPs, you control what your end-users are allowed to do on the Internet.
- Part of the configuration is blocklisting, which means that it blocks connections to websites by default.
- The safelist can be used for exceptions like employees allowed to use the Internet on their work computer or a children filter for web access on your home network.
- When you block a website, it is blocked in real-time and affects all types of browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.).
- It does not matter from which computer your end-user tries to access websites. The web filter is centrally configured and enforced on all computers.
- You can configure a schedule for when you want the web filtering to be enforced.
What are the requirements?
The SWG runs on Sophos XG 85 with the following minimum requirements:
- Intel Core i5 or equivalent processor.
- 4 GB RAM.
- 10 GB free disk space for caching and logs (15 GB recommended).
The SWG can be used on appliances with lower specifications, but it is not a good idea to use it on an XG 85 with less than 4 GB RAM.
Installation and setup (local SWG)
The local appliance (SWGv2) can be used as a standalone web filter or combined with any other Sophos UTM solution acting as the central configuration point.
