Cisco Secure Email vs Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway comparison

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect organizations against advanced threats in their email, collaboration, and productivity environments. It combines the power of Microsoft's threat intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral analytics to provide real-time protection against phishing, malware, ransomware, and other malicious attacks.

With Microsoft Defender for Office 365, organizations can safeguard their email communication by detecting and blocking malicious links, attachments, and unsafe email content. It employs advanced anti-phishing capabilities to identify and prevent sophisticated phishing attacks that attempt to steal sensitive information or compromise user credentials.

This solution also offers robust protection against malware and ransomware. It leverages machine learning algorithms to analyze email attachments and URLs in real-time, identifying and blocking malicious content before it reaches users' inboxes. Additionally, it provides advanced threat-hunting capabilities, allowing security teams to proactively investigate and respond to potential threats.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 goes beyond email protection and extends its security features to other collaboration tools like SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. It scans files and documents stored in these platforms, ensuring that they are free from malware and other malicious content. It also provides visibility into user activities, helping organizations detect and mitigate insider threats.

Furthermore, this solution offers rich reporting and analytics capabilities, providing organizations with insights into their security posture and threat landscape. It enables security administrators to monitor and manage security incidents, track trends, and take proactive measures to enhance their overall security posture.

Cisco Secure Email ensures email traffic security, acting as a checkpoint before emails enter environments like Office 365. It filters out spam, phishing attempts, and malicious content, scanning emails for threats. It offers both inbound and outbound email security with features like URL filtering, spam filtering, and encryption.

Cisco Secure Email functions as an email gateway in cloud, on-premise, and hybrid deployments. Offering capabilities such as Advanced Malware Protection, URL and Reputation Filtering, and real-time threat intelligence from Talos, it efficiently safeguards email traffic. Detailed logging, reporting, and quarantine management features provide robust security while being highly configurable. Its integration with SecureX and customizable rules enhance its effectiveness. Though strong in malware protection, improvements in reporting, phishing detection, user-friendliness, and integration with Office 365 are areas of focus. Scalability, cost-effectiveness, and AI-driven features are also areas where it can advance.

• Advanced Malware Protection: Provides robust defense against complex malware threats
• URL Filtering: Blocks dangerous URLs preventing phishing and malicious website access
• Reputation Filtering: Utilizes global threat intelligence to filter out high-risk emails
• Trajectory Feature: Tracks file behavior and movements across a network
• Spam and Phishing Prevention: Efficiently filters out unwanted spam and phishing attempts
• Detailed Logging and Reporting: Offers extensive logs and reports for better threat analysis
• High Configurability: Allows extensive customization to fit security needs
• Integration with SecureX: Enhances security operations with SecureX platform integration
• Real-Time Threat Intelligence from Talos: Accesses up-to-date threat data for proactive protection
• Sandboxing: Isolates and tests suspicious files in a secure environment
• Antivirus: Provides comprehensive virus protection
• Customizable Rules: Enables tailored security policies for specific requirements

• Strong Malware Protection: Ensures robust defense against malware
• Efficient Quarantine Management: Effectively handles quarantined emails minimizing disruptions
• Email Certification: Provides validation ensuring email authenticity
• User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies security management and operations
• Robust Security Capabilities: Delivers comprehensive security for email traffic

Cisco Secure Email integrates effectively in sectors like finance, healthcare, and education that need stringent data protection and compliance. Financial institutions favor it for its encryption and data leak protection features ensuring secure transactions. Healthcare organizations use it to adhere to compliance requirements like HIPAA, safeguarding patient data with advanced threat detection and email security. Educational institutions rely on it for protecting student data and intellectual property from phishing and malware attacks, ensuring a secure communication environment.

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is a secure web gateway (SWG) tool that provides multiple forms of protection against malware, including blocking categories of websites, inline scanning of downloaded files, and zero trust-based advanced threat protection. The solution monitors and controls any interaction with any website, including blocking access to websites based on category and risk score, blocking download of malware, blocking upload of sensitive data to personal file sharing accounts, and detecting shadow IT.

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway Features

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

• Real-time traffic inspection
• Protection for off-grid workers
• Time and content-based access
• Data leak prevention
• SCIM provisioning
• Data-in-motion scanning
• Connection policies
• Content policies
• RBI profiles
• Discovery dashboard
• Bypass prevention
• Unified on-device agent
• Field Programmable SASE Logic (FPSL)

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

• Fast: The solution is high speed with on-device enforcement. Traffic is routed directly to its destination. In addition, you will experience fewer bottlenecks and choke points.

• Flexible: Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is designed to automatically scale up or down with traffic needs. It is also flexible because it is hosted on AWS in more than 300 data centers.

• Advanced DLP capabilities: The solution’s advanced DLP capabilities keep sensitive information from leaking out onto websites to provide consistent protection and simplify management.

• Streamlined security: Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is part of Forcepoint ONE, a Security Service Edge (SSE) cloud-native platform that provides secure access to web, cloud, and private apps while connecting users directly to websites so you can skip the data center.

• Unified administrator console: You can use the solution’s unified administrator console to reduce repetitive and redundant configuration management.

Reviews from Real Users

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it has strong reporting capabilities, good URL filtering, and can retrieve and analyze lost data when necessary.

Shipra G., Service Delivery Manager at Paramount Computer Systems, says, “The reporting part of it is pretty awesome. With the reporting, you can drill down effectively. It gives us a lot of power to really look into what we are looking for. That is one very crucial feature. In the remote filtering part, the agent that they have on Forcepoint is pretty light. That also is a very, very good feature that we look into and sell.”

Mohammed S., Security Engineer at Futuretec, writes, "The most valuable feature for me in Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is URL filtering, though all other features of the product are okay as well."

Arvind K., Director at Foresight Software Solutions Pvt Ltd., says, “They have well-integrated web security. They have the enterprise DLP included in the cloud as well.”

An Ict Help Desk Administrator Individual Contributor at a transportation company states, “The most valuable feature of Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is the ability to retrieve and analyze lost data. It also allows us to detect and prevent the release of all messages and to take appropriate actions in consequence.”