Overview
What is Forcepoint SWG?
The Forcepoint ONE Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is one of the three foundational gateways of the Forcepoint ONE all-in-one cloud platform. Forcepoint ONE SWG monitors and controlsany interaction with any website, including blocking access to websites based on category and…
Forcepoint is a force to reckon with!
Protects the organization
WebSecurity
Decent product with poor support
Meets requirements but in our experience does not lend itself well to remote workers
Forcepoint Web Security: Content security for SMB, which is good enough for even large enterprises
Forcepoint Web Security: Secures Your Browsing Traffic
Extend content and threat protection to off-premises EUC
Forcepoint Web Security: An application that does what we expect it to do
Forcepoint Web Security- The Industy leader in Content filtering and Security
Reassured Cybersecurity
You can make it better
Forcepoint Security
Forcepoint killed 'em all!
Excellent threat protection and Productivity monitoring with now in house overheads.
Awards
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Product Demos
Mac OS Endpoint Installation | Forcepoint Web Security Cloud
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Forcepoint SWG?
Forcepoint SWG Features
- Supported: Shadow IT discovery and risk ranking
- Supported: Cloud Application Control and full CASB upgrade
- Supported: Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
- Supported: Cloud Sandbox
Forcepoint SWG Video
Forcepoint SWG Competitors
Forcepoint SWG Technical Details
Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
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Operating Systems | Windows, Linux, Mac |
Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(137)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway has proven to be a valuable tool for organizations in various departments, ensuring secure browsing of the internet and addressing a range of security concerns. Users have reported that the application effectively blocks malicious threats while allowing users to browse the internet, providing an effective layer of security. This has helped organizations protect their computers and laptops from potential threats, giving IT departments peace of mind.
Additionally, the software has been instrumental in managing productivity, as it enables different departments to access specific categories of websites and allows managers to review internet activity. HR teams have found value in the user site visit data managed by Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway, which has proven helpful in certain cases. Moreover, the ability to quickly generate standard reports from the report catalog has made it easier for organizations to monitor web traffic and measure internet usage.
In public-sector organizations, the software ensures that users and staff are accessing websites aligned with mission goals. Libraries have leveraged its functionality to enable filtering of staff and patron internet usage, meeting requirements for CIPA compliance and qualifying for E-Rate funding.
Customers have also praised Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway's scalability and ease of deployment across multiple locations. The granular delegation of administration via active directory has allowed local departments to implement their own rule sets, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.
Overall, customers have found this product to be a reliable solution for securing web traffic, preventing threats, managing productivity, and ensuring compliance with organizational policies.
Helpful and Clear Help Articles: Reviewers have praised the clear and helpful help articles provided by Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway. These articles were found to be a valuable resource in understanding and utilizing the software effectively, with some users mentioning that they served as a comprehensive reference point for various tasks and functionalities. The availability of these detailed and informative articles not only contributed to a smoother learning curve but also helped troubleshoot issues independently, reducing the reliance on customer service support.
Time-saving Feature: Users appreciate the time-saving aspect of Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway's clear and easily accessible help articles. With these resources readily available, reviewers mentioned being able to find answers to their questions quickly, allowing them to continue working without interruptions. This feature has been particularly useful in minimizing downtime caused by seeking support from customer service or navigating complex user manuals.
Commitment to Customer Satisfaction: The inclusion of clear help articles demonstrates Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway's commitment to customer satisfaction. Reviewers highlighted how this comprehensive resource eliminates unnecessary back-and-forth communication with customer support, as it provides extensive information upfront. By offering detailed guidance through these articles, Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway ensures users have access to reliable self-help options, enhancing overall user experience.
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Poor User Interface: Multiple users have expressed frustration with the confusing and non-user-friendly interface of Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway, making it difficult to navigate and causing difficulties during installation.
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Limited Configuration Options: Some users feel that the software lacks flexibility in defining usage, as the options for configuring policies and exceptions are limited compared to other available options in the market.
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Slow Support Response Times: Users have reported slower support response times compared to other vendors, with issues taking 3 to 5 days to resolve, indicating a need for more efficient and responsive customer support from Forcepoint.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-3 of 3)Easy Protection with Forcepoint Web Security
- Check bandwidth usage, e.g "bandwidth vampires"
- Control internet access with policies
- Robust reporting!
- Easy to use interface and very user-friendly "User Administrative" interfaces
- Extremely stable and no sudden issues
- Complete Active Directory integration. Users have to be manually removed if they have been deleted on Active Directory, therefore you can have some users who still exist but have been deleted from Active Directory and consume licenses
- Some configurations are only available via Linux CLI which can be intimidating for Windows or "GUI users" on the appliance configurations
- There are three parts of the system and some people don't know that and that can be confusing, i.e. Web Security, Content Management Gateway and Appliance Management. It can be simplified to be one system or at least have it be more obvious that there are three "parts"
- Some sites struggle to be accessed and some have to be "bypassed" because of some known issues with the sites
- Control of internet usage with organisational policies.
- Secure internet access for users even when not in the office network.
- Have a management view of how the internet is used in the organisation, e.g productivity versus productivity loss.
The web interface wasn't user friendly and not "straight forward."
Active Directory
Internet site categorization
Web Caching fundamentals
Access Control Lists
- Secure Internet Access anywhere
- Protection of organisation machines/laptops regardless of location
- Control of Internet Usage
- Identify losses in productivity
- Different user Internet access needs catered for
- Identify unproductive users.
- Identify Internet "bandwidth vampires" which affect other users' Internet speed which could be for the organization's productivity.
- Able to identify a user's IP Address on the system (real-time access tab by hovering on their name) to be able to identify their machines for support by Help Desk.
- Use in IT audits (e.g how many threats within a time frame were blocked, what are the top users being blocked etc.).
- Add the Advanced Malware Protection Module to add another layer of security.
- Increase the number of users who use laptops to further use the Hybrid deployment where the web security policies still apply everywhere and anywhere regardless of your Internet connection.
It has excellent reporting which help in determining how the organisation's Internet is used and also during both internal and external IT audits.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Vendor Reputation
- Third-party professional services
- First night the upgrade failed and had to seek Forcepoint Support help
- There were known issues in the upgrade that were not researched prior to the upgrade
- The upgrade took longer than anticipated (as the first night it failed and we rolled back)
- Getting Reports
- Assigning User Policy
- Monitoring system perfomance and using module perfomance dashboards
- Troubleshooting user access policy issues
- Able to determine issues whether it is the Internet or the product having problems
- Knowing that the system has three parts; appliance, web security and content management gateway
- Having to sometimes use a Linux shell on the when you are more skewed to Windows. Most troubleshooting tools on the appliance are Linux CLI based
- When a user is deleted in Active Directory, you have to delete that person again on Forcepoint Web Security
Forcepoint Web Security used on a daily basis
- Delegated administration.
- Single management interface for web, data and email security.
- Cloud integration.
- New products are sometimes released to market before they are fully evaluated.
- The first implementation requires a lot of attention, especially the sizing of the platform, but once it's all set up its smooth sailing.
- Forcepoint Web Security requires investment in purchase and time spent to gain knowledge on how to implement and manage the product.
- We cannot say for sure how much is saved, but in the reports, we see that a lot of malicious content is blocked and that access to non-business related sites is restricted where it is needed.
- Real delegated administration
- SSL inspection
- AD integration
- Ease of management
- Cooperation between email, web, and DLP
- We have basically one main use case: Protect internet access for our users.
- None that i'm aware of currently.
- We would like to extend the implementation of DLP.
Great Filter, Easy Reporting
- It tracks user activity, which means our HR department has a tool to report on certain users' activities when their productivity vs. internet surfing habits are in question. The reports are pretty simple to create and view and the ability to export to Excel has been useful. The ability to automatically generate and email these reports on a schedule has been useful at times too.
- The ability to set quotas, such as users are allowed to spend 30minutes per day on Facebook or 30minutes a day on shopping sites, which displays the quota for the user when they enter such a site, has been a valuable reminder of our company policies for such activity.
- The ability to prevent certain types of protocols for certain groups of users, such as group xyz is not allowed on FTP sites, or only https, has allowed to consider and set security parameters for different groups of users.
- The ability to easily override any group policy setting for a certain individual if an immediate need for something outside the box arises has been useful. If a certain user is temporarily filling in for another person on vacation and needs additional internet access with less restrictions, we just call out that user specifically in the software and apply a different policy, then easily remove that the following week.
- While the reports are easy to generate, analyzing the data can be challenging. For example, it records every hit on a webpage, so for something like Facebook, every time the page refreshes itself or changes an ad etc. it records it. So, if a user goes to Facebook and actually clicks on two things to read, it could end up showing the had forty clicks, which makes it challenging to HR to determine where the line of "extreme usage" actually is based on these skewed reports.
- We have had three times in 8 years where the software had a table that got corrupted that synchs data from AD, so the usernames were not available for reporting. We had to run reports for a while based on IP address, which could change frequently since we're DHCP like most companies, so the data in the reports were essentially useless during this period. Support helped us solve the issue, but each time it took about a week.
- Support has managed to solve every problem, issue or questions we've had, but it has been slower than most of our vendors. Where we typically get same day support from almost everyone, most Websense support tickets have been 1) open a ticket wait for a call back, 2) get an email requesting more data.. wait, 3) get an email requesting a time to work with us.. wait, 4) get a confirmation than actually get on a shared session to work, 5) be told they had logs to review first or needed to do research and would get back to us in a day or two... 6) more emails... 7) finally an email resolution or screen share to walk us through the resolution or setting change. Typically this was a 3 to 5 day turn around time. Since it's not a critical system for us, though extremely useful, it's not been a bid deal here.
- We have been able to curb user habits through HR and through the built in quotas for certain website categories, which has led to less user surfing time.
- We have seen certain types of potentially malicious websites blocks where users have clicked on something unaware and been prevented from accessing based on certain types of protocol blocks IT put in place.
- We have also been able to monitor bandwidth usage per user and when we had spikes on our network saturation reports from our ISP, we could tell who was causing the usage issue and address it with the individual, which allowed to determine if we needed to scale up with additional bandwidth or if we just had a user(s) hogging all the bandwidth for streaming media and causing a false sense of usage for the company as a whole. This has saved us money by allowing us to maintain the right size pipes with our ISP.
- Company policy and compliance
- HR user reviews
- Protocol/Category website prevention
- We have a policy that says users can surf the internet during their lunch break. So we set a quota policy that allows a user to go to shopping sites, but it tells them when they do they have a 30 minute usage for the day. It reminds them of the policy and then after the 30 minutes prevents them from going to other shopping sites that day, enforcing the policy if they attempt to violate it.