• As employees shift their work to browsers and SaaS apps, web traffic has become the new frontline of cybersecurity. 
• Endpoint security alone isn’t enough—every organization must have visibility into their web traffic to manage Shadow AI, SaaS Sprawl, and risky user behaviors. 
• Symantec Cloud SWG Express promptly delivers high-quality visibility into your web traffic, simplifying web inspection and compliance for resource-constrained teams.

For years, endpoint security has been the stalwart foundation of any organization’s defense strategy. Many resource-strapped teams rely on robust endpoint protection to keep their burgeoning environment (and its devices) in check. But today, if your security focus ends at the device, you’ve left the front door—aka your web traffic—wide open.

That’s largely because the modern corporate desktop has been replaced by the web browser. For a remote workforce, 90% of the workday occurs within SaaS apps and collaboration tools. Organizations that rely solely on endpoint tools face a massive blind spot. Unable to adequately see into their web traffic, they cannot efficiently monitor their users’ browser activity or enforce an acceptable use policy (AUP).

That leaves teams grappling with a cold hard fact: Threats must be stopped as far away from the endpoint as possible. 

3 truths you’re forced to contend with (and conquer) 

The AI-powered shift in the threat landscape has made web traffic inspection a critical, non-negotiable security layer, especially for organizations that primarily focus on endpoint protection. Busy teams need to tackle three key realities to close the gap and make it harder for attackers to find their way in.

1. Managing Shadow AI and the SaaS explosion.

The rapid adoption of rogue GenAI and niche SaaS tools—often used by employees for a competitive edge—creates new risks. Without a Secure Web Gateway (SWG), you lack visibility into their usage. Employees may inadvertently feed sensitive company data into unauthorized AI tools or personal SaaS accounts. 

Web traffic inspection provides an immediate inventory of web applications being used, enabling IT to enforce AUPs by blocking or alerting on high-risk categories like "Unsanctioned AI" or "File Sharing."

2. Shifting your stance from “protection” to “visibility and governance.”

With 81% of smaller organizations suffering a breach in 2025, a passive "black box" security approach is simply not sustainable anymore. Regulators and insurance providers now demand proof that teams are actively monitoring outbound data, pushing organizations toward governance maturity. Acting as a light switch in a dark room, web traffic inspection illuminates the essential logs, audit trails, and policy controls needed to satisfy compliance mandates.

3. Getting a grip on remote users—while staying compliant.

As organizations move away from “all-or-nothing” VPNs toward a Security Service Edge (SSE) model, a cloud-native SWG becomes indispensable. Providing the "eyes and ears" for a distributed workforce, it gives administrators the precise clarity they need to classify and categorize all web traffic. This ensures that your AUP follows the user, providing compliance and security regardless of their physical location. 

Symantec Cloud SWG Express: More than a tool–it’s an edge

For teams that lack the resources and budgets of enterprise-class SOCs, addressing those three truths has proven difficult. Attack surfaces are expanding, threat actors are constantly finding new ways in, and web security too often has been viewed as out-of-reach or a nice-to-have among many security managers. Security teams need a different way forward—one that protects web traffic, web users, and the organization itself while aligning with the limitations that most security teams must operate under.

Today, we’re addressing this need by announcing the availability of Symantec Cloud SWG Express. Designed for IT and security professionals in resource-strapped teams who need an advantage more than just another tool, Symantec Cloud SWG Express delivers the web visibility and protection today’s environments demand. This is enterprise-grade security without the complexity or high cost traditionally associated with tools built for enterprises

Cloud SWG Express distinguishes itself by making comprehensive web visibility and protection simple and seamless. Behind that simplicity is the same cloud-delivered protection architecture that powers Symantec’s enterprise web security. Leveraging advanced proxy technology, threat intelligence, and malware scanning, it’s built to extend protection beyond web threats while seamlessly complementing your organization’s existing endpoint security. 

Enterprise-grade defenses beyond the endpoint

Symantec Cloud SWG Express delivers essential web security with the level of visibility and control resource-constrained teams have long lacked:

• Extend endpoint security and gain visibility. By using your existing Symantec Endpoint Security Agent (ESA) to route web traffic through Symantec’s Cloud SWG, you’re able to leverage the Symantec Global Intelligence Network for more advanced threat hunting.
• Proactive threat deflection. Actively deflect malicious traffic before it reaches the endpoint with this critical layer. Using Symantec’s leading SWG for industry-leading web categorization and classification (into more than 80 categories), you can immediately block access to suspicious or malicious sites.
• Easy deployment and management. Designed for generalist IT staff, you simply deploy the ESA, and it works. Simple as that. Agent management is instantly handled via Symantec’s leading agent management platform.
• Low-cost, high-value control. At a low-cost per-user-per-year price, this lightweight and fast solution delivers much-needed visibility and control into web traffic. It empowers your teams to enforce AUPs and creates the foundation for a more complete SSE solution as your organization’s needs grow.

Equipping teams facing large-scale threats

Advanced threats are everyone’s problem now, and that means everyone needs advanced protections. 

Symantec Cloud SWG Express is Symantec’s latest offering to help teams battle advanced threats, but in ways that make sense for their budgets and their business. Today’s release comes on the heels of our announcing Symantec CBX, the first Extended Detection and Response (XDR) that combines the power of Symantec and Carbon Black. Symantec CBX delivers organizations from the challenges of tools sprawl and eliminates visibility gaps by using AI to comprehensively correlate telemetry data across endpoints, networks and data. The insights and capabilities of CBX reduce complexity and overwhelm with unmatched prevention, detection and response.

Cloud SWG Express offers a timely on-ramp for teams looking to tap into the potency of Symantec CBX. And this powerful web security component of CBX is available now, delivering on our mission to meet every defender where they are with the defenses they deserve. 

Take a closer look at Cloud SWG Express, improve your visibility, and stop threats before the endpoint. 

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