A CASB provides the security resources an organization needs to manage to shadow IT and safeguard cloud-based data. This includes web gateways, firewalls, and policy and governance features to monitor, detect and protect data from cyber threats.
CASBs ensure that the right people, devices, and applications have access to infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and software as a service environment. They also integrate with existing security solutions to extend them to the cloud.
Security
A CASB is an excellent option for organizations that must protect sensitive data from hackers. So, why you need CASB security? CASB monitors cloud applications, detects malware risks, and blocks suspicious activity like account management or file access. It also offers threat protection and data encryption at rest and in transit. Choosing the right CASB requires some considerations, such as performance and integration. You should select a CASB that does not interfere with network performance or user productivity and supports industry certifications. Additionally, a good CASB should be integrated with existing security infrastructure and provide granular visibility of data and risky behavior to prevent breaches.
As businesses move to the cloud, they are facing increased security challenges. Remote work and bring-your-own-device policies make it difficult for IT departments to know where data is stored in any cloud environment. Without a CASB, this data is vulnerable to unauthorized use and may be moved from the corporate network without the company’s knowledge.
A CASB helps IT organizations identify shadow IT and unauthorized data usage. It uses a combination of tools, including APIs, gateways, and agents, to monitor and analyze activity and apply business policy. CASBs can be especially helpful for organizations with multiple cloud environments and users, as they can monitor activity and enforce policies across all locations and devices.
Compliance
Many enterprises rely on cloud platforms and applications to store and process sensitive data. However, they must remain in compliance with regulations that mandate the security and privacy of this information. This is where a CASB can help.
CASBs monitor activity across all network services to identify risky data, protect against threats, fill the DLP gap, and ensure data privacy and security rules compliance. They also serve as a policy enforcement center, consolidating multiple security policies and enforcing them for everything your business uses in the cloud—whether on-premises or SaaS apps or BYOD devices like unmanaged smartphones and IoT devices.
Organizations embracing remote work and allowing employees to use their devices can expose them to unsanctioned software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools. This is often referred to as shadow IT, and it’s a growing concern for enterprise security teams.
CASBs reveal shadow IT activities and help prevent insider attacks by identifying strange behavior caused by malware or stolen credentials. They do this by creating a comprehensive view of the company’s regular usage patterns and using them as a baseline for comparison with suspicious activity. They then apply machine learning and technologies to detect and stop threats as they occur. Depending on your needs, you may want to choose a CASB with advanced functions like credential mapping and single sign-on, device posture analysis, logging, alerting, and encryption.
Availability
In the world of cloud security, CASBs are designed to be the gatekeepers that block unwanted access and ensure a safe flow of data. They monitor traffic to cloud applications and the sync clients they use, analyzing patterns of activity that may be indicators of malware or other threats. A CASB can also detect and alert infected files, preventing them from leaving the company network and spreading through unauthorized users or devices.
As a result of remote work and BYOD, business-critical applications and user data now live outside the corporate network. This makes it difficult for IT to have visibility into their cloud environments and effectively deploy familiar security tools from on-prem networks. CASBs enable organizations to safely help sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services by providing credential mapping, single sign-on authentication, threat detection, device posture profiling, logging, reporting, and encryption.
The proliferation of shadow IT, the shift of applications to the cloud, and changing threat landscapes have made CASBs more critical than ever. In addition, it’s increasingly important to combine CASB technology with other security technologies, such as next-generation secure web gateways and data loss prevention (DLP), to prevent a single-point solution from creating gaps in protection. In response to these challenges, CASBs are morphing into just one piece of what is known as the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture.
Cost
Because the cloud has made it much harder for IT teams to control their data, they need a tool to monitor the use of SaaS and other third-party applications. CASBs can help to identify unsanctioned cloud usage, provide access controls and enforce compliance with data policies. These tools can also protect against malware, insider threats, and other sophisticated attacks. They can also offer data loss prevention (DLP) and SaaS security posture management.
Choosing the right CASB solution will depend on an organization’s specific needs. For example, some solutions offer advanced features, while others are focused on detecting shadow IT and SaaS security risks. Other CASBs are designed to support the broader cybersecurity infrastructure, such as next-generation secure web gateways. These tools will combine multiple security and networking technologies to create a single, seamless security infrastructure without the latency and limitations of traditional perimeter security.
CASBs can be deployed either on-premises or in the cloud. They can be used in API mode, which offers quicker deployment and better coverage, or in proxy mode, which provides inline policy enforcement. They can also be used with firewalls and endpoint protection solutions to deliver comprehensive coverage. The best CASBs can detect, analyze, and remediate threats in real time. They can see abnormal user behavior and prevent questionable content from leaving the organization.
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