Cisco Cisco Web Security Appliance S170 Getting Started Guide

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At-a-Glance
Needed: A Better Approach to Web Security 
The risk of security threats and data breaches has been increasing due 
to an expanding attack surface. Employees now use an array of mobile 
devices that open up new vulnerabilities. Virtualization technology has 
spread data and resources to different infrastructure layers that add 
complexity and potential security weaknesses. Advanced threats use 
multiple threat vectors, and to combat them you need improved visibility, 
more detailed identification of users and devices, consistent control, and 
faster remediation once a threat is identified. 
Many organizations deploy multiple security point solutions across the 
enterprise network. These products have one big problem: they don’t 
provide enough contextual information to map complex deployments 
or to gather enough detail on users and devices to help you sufficiently 
understand the threat vectors that may leave your organization vulnerable 
to a breach or an attack. What you need is an integrated approach to 
help disparate security point solutions to work together, to triangulate 
information for faster identification, and to more effectively mitigate and 
remediate threats. That’s what you get with the Cisco® Web Security 
Appliance together with the Cisco Identity Services Engine.
Figure 1.  Web Security Appliance Integration with Identity Services Engine: Examples of 
Varying Access
WSA
Internal
Employee Intranet
Confidential
Patient Records
Internet
Consistent Secure
Access Policy
Who: Doctor
What: Laptop
Where: Office
Who: Doctor
What: iPad
Where: Office
Who: Guest
What: iPad
Where: Office
Cisco Identity
Services Engine
Cisco Web Security 
Appliance with 
the Cisco Identity 
Services Engine
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Benefits
•  Single source of identity and 
contextual data
•  Rich identity awareness (who, 
what, where, and when) for web 
security policy 
•  Consistent user experience 
across multiple endpoints that 
is perfect for bring-your-own-
device (BYOD) initiatives
•  More detailed reporting to 
understand how, when, and 
from what devices users access 
web resources