Secure Web Gateways

URL filtering: Enforces acceptable-use policies by blocking access to objectionable Web sites, content and applications. This capability gives organizations the ability to design Internet-use policies to maintain employee productivity, manage network bandwidth usage, lessen legal liability and prevent exposure to Web-based malware.

Anti-virus: Anti-virus or the Virus Protection function performs deep inspection of files coming into the organization from the Web using a variety of detection methods, including pattern matching, emulation technology and heuristic techniques, without adding separate file-scanning appliances or slowing browsing performance.

Anti-spyware: Anti-Spyware or Spyware protection performs deep inspection of files and active content coming in from the Web to prevent spyware from getting inside the network, blocks "phone home" traffic from infected PCs that may contain sensitive data, and pinpoints which machines are infected with what malware to aid in prioritization and cleanup. Some web gateways include the function of Spyware Removal as well.

Anti-botnet: Also known as botnet protection, it detects and blocks algorithms to protect against botnet infections, prevents the spread of botnets inside the network from infected machines, and blocks bot communications to command and control servers and spam and distributed denial-of-service payloads.

Application Control: Multiprotocol processing inspects all inbound, outbound and internal network traffic, across all ports and protocols, in order to detect and block Web malware when it tries to enter the network, spread within the network and phone home.

Since the amount of Web traffic is increasing daily, secure Web gateways must be able to handle significant traffic loads. They use multiple processing engines on a single platform to achieve low latency (less than a few milliseconds), so that the user Web-browsing experience is not negatively affected.