Cyberworld has become a jungle full of dangerous beasts. There are so many threats out there that it requires a large and dedicated set of professionals with state of the art equipment to protect the organization against all of them. However, commercial organizations are not in the business of cyber protection. They cannot and should not invest all their resources in cybersecurity. They need to focus on their core business and not worry about the security of either their IT infrastructure or their information. But, because it is their information, they need to understand that if they do not pay adequate attention and get the right equipment to protect their organization, cyber threats might damage their overall business. It is here that integrated security gateway solutions come to the rescue of organizations and helps them focus on business without worrying about cybersecurity.
Integrated Security Gateway
The integrated security gateway is a solution that provides integrated unified threat management and requires minimal resources from the organization. A gateway sits in between the enterprise network and the public network (the Internet). However, it is more than just a firewall as it has many features that protect the corporate network from within the organization. Gateway protection solution serves as a standalone cyber threat security solution for a small organization. A good security gateway will have many security features a few of which are listed further in this article.
Key Security Features in a Gateway
1. Firewall: All gateway solutions need to protect the network from unauthorized access and intrusion. Thus, they must have a state of art firewall that will scan and protect the enterprise network from external threats. It provides the features such as traffic logging, implementation of the predetermined rules, intrusion prevention system and auto update of firmware without waiting for the user to download it manually.
2. Antivirus: The gateway has a built-in antivirus. As the device is connected to the internet, it updates the new virus definitions automatically. For this reason alone, it is important that organization should select the product from a vendor who has an in-depth proficiency in antivirus space as well.
Also Read: How ransomware works: Understanding the strategy behind cyberattacks
3. Mail Protection: Email protection is more than just scanning the attachments for viruses and malware. The body of the email is scanned for keywords, based on which the email is blocked. The email addresses of sender and receiver are verified against blacklist (or the white-list). A good email protection system will also check against the publicly known spam and phishing email ids.
4. Virtual Private Network (VPN): One of the biggest risks for the organization is the risk of infiltration and data leak when an employee connects to the enterprise network from a public network. Virtual Private Network or VPN creates a private network on such public networks so that the functionality, security, and management of the computer are like it being on the enterprise network. A good gateway solution would provide all VPN features such as Site to Site VPN, SSL VPN, Remote Access VPN, Dead Peer Detection (with or without perfect forward secrecy), PPTP server, etc.
5. User Authentication: An integrated gateway solution supports all kinds of user authentication such as Active directory integration, LDAP support, Internal database (of users), IP/MAC binding, Group based access and guest logins.
6. Content Filtering: Phishing, fake and social media sites are some of the major sources of attacks on corporate networks. Employees may innocently or intentionally access these sites, opening a doorway for hackers into the enterprise network. Content filtering reduces the threat due to such events. The gateway solution can provide custom website access list, HTTP or HTTPS blocking, bandwidth limit for each user, time-based access limit including data quota management and keyword based content filtering. Content filtering is one of the key requirements to prevent threats due to internal misuse of infrastructure.
7. Network Management: Since gateways provide an integrated solution that covers all the enterprise networks; network management is an essential feature of a gateway. At the minimum, it should provide load balancing, DNS server, DHCP server, NAT support, multicast routing, policy-based routing support, fail over support, VLAN, IP and port forwarding, etc.
Seqrite’s unified threat management solution TERMINATOR is a reliable, state of the art solution that provides many more features apart from those mentioned above. Though suitable for all sorts of enterprises, it is the most efficient and affordable solution for small offices as it offers the best security without any stress on resources.
As an IT security partner for your business, Seqrite provides comprehensive endpoint security from advanced cyber threats. To know more, visit our website or
