Secure Web Gateway (SWG)
Halodoc is a health-tech platform aiming to simplify access to healthcare for millions of people around Indonesia. Halodoc implemented Secure web gateway at the Halodoc headquarter office to protect users from web-based threats and applied acceptable use policies. Halodoc uses Secure Web Gateway that is deployed on top of the Next Gen Firewall (NGFW).
What is Secure Web Gateway (SWG):
SWG is a service that prevents users on the network from accessing malicious or unwanted contents. SWG also provides security protections based on categorisation by inspecting web requests and monitoring web traffic based on user requests. In addition to this, we can either block or release certain websites that have not been categorised or rated.
How Secure web gateway works in the Halodoc environment
We have implemented Fortigate as our NGFW and this includes the Secure web gateway function.
Fortigate SWG service protects employees from accessing malicious web content or suspicious websites that could put the company network at risk. We can automatically block high-risk web content to ensure no malicious downloads can be initiated and/or transferred to a company device.
A SWG performs two main functions: URL Filtering and content inspections. URL filtering prevents users from accessing specific websites based on category or content type. Content inspection is used to scan for phishing attempts, malware download, or any other malicious activities on each website before allowing access to it.
In-line Deployment—Secure web gateway acts as a transparent bridge in the network and analyses the content.
Fortigate overview
Fortinet’s FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFW) provide organisations supreme protection against web-based network threats, including known and unknown threats and intrusion strategies. Deployed on-premise, through virtual hardware, or in the cloud, FortiGate firewalls seamlessly integrate with FortiGuard Labs security services to extend and strengthen an enterprise’s overall security efforts from network edge to core.
Secure web gateway is a security service that acts as an intermediary between internal networks and the internet. There are several ways SWG can protect from cyber attacks, such as Content filtering, URL Filtering, Application Control, and Threat Protection.
What are the main SWG features?
Content Filtering
Content filtering uses keyword and pattern matching to examine each packet of information for signs of inappropriate content. When this type of content is detected, it will be blocked or discarded.
SWG policies
Blocking page
URL Filtering
URL Filtering allows to set up rules that restrict access to specific websites based on their domain name or site URL scheme; this feature either grants or denies access depending on URL categories, users, groups or machines. Furthermore, it can also see what sites that employees are accessing and when they accessed the sites.
Application Control
The application control feature allows blocking or limiting any web applications. As a result, this ensures that the data used and shared between applications is private, secure and remains within that organisation.
Threat Protection
Threat Protection helps to protect from malware and malicious software that could infect laptops and steal personal information. This includes Ransomware, which encrypts files on a device until ransom is paid to decrypt them.
What are the benefits of a secure web gateway?
Implementing a secure web gateway is an important security measure for protection against web threats.
Secure web gateway allows to prevent users from accessing malicious or unwanted websites while keeping them safe from phishing attacks. This technology can also help protect against malware infection by scanning known threats.
From a secure web gateway, we can also have a visibility of web traffic from users into the internet and we can manage them by using various controls, such as prioritising internet bandwidth based on users, IP address, VLAN, or destination. For example, when there is a requirement to access certain business apps, we can prioritise the network bandwidth allocation so these apps can have their “own lane” to be reachable from the users.
Secure Web Gateway vs Firewall
Firewall main function is to deny or allow specific service, firewall can't inspect what inside the packets. For example, if there is traffic for HTTP or HTTPS, firewall can only deny or allow it. When we deny HTTP or HTTPS, it will impact all users so they can't access this service. This is why we need to implement a secure web gateway, with secure web gateway traffic that uses HTTP or HTTPS will be inspected and decided whether this traffic is legit or not.
Conclusion
Secure web gateway provides a full and comprehensive protection for the web traffic that cannot be achieved with only a firewall since users can go directly to browse any websites, and hence bypass the firewall controls and security measures in place. In addition to this, secure web gateway provides full visibility for websites that are being accessed from the users and these websites can be blocked if the content is malicious. Secure web gateway gives visibility to control which websites users can access and it will also allow network administrators to monitor web traffic for suspicious activities.
Join Us:
The three pillars of scalability, dependability, and maintainability guide everything we create at Halodoc Tech. If solving difficult issues with demanding specifications is your strong suit, please get in touch with us with your resume at careers.india@halodoc.com. We are currently seeking engineers at all levels.
About Halodoc
Halodoc is the number 1 all-around Healthcare application in Indonesia. Our mission is to simplify and bring quality healthcare across Indonesia, from Sabang to Merauke.
We connect 20,000+ doctors with patients in need through our Tele-consultation service. We partner with 1500+ pharmacies in 50 cities to bring medicine to your doorstep. We've also partnered with Indonesia's largest lab provider to provide lab home services, and to top it off we have recently launched a premium appointment service that partners with 500+ hospitals that allows patients to book a doctor appointment inside our application.
We are extremely fortunate to be trusted by our investors, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Singtel, UOB Ventures, Allianz, Gojek, and many more. We recently closed our Series B round and In total have raised USD$100million for our mission.
Our team works tirelessly to make sure that we create the best healthcare solution personalised for all of our patient's needs, and are continuously on a path to simplify healthcare for Indonesia.