Every enterprise with significant cloud deployments needs a CASB. As security specialists, CASBs are the point of contact between cloud service consumers and providers to combine and interject enterprise security policies as data is moved between the cloud and local company systems. CASBs discover cloud apps and services, rate risk, and provide access control to a wide range of business processes.
Security
In the digital age, security is critical to a business’s operations. Threat actors often use cloud applications to gain access to an organization’s data and network, causing damage and potentially leading to costly breaches. Cloud access security brokers (CASB) must address these risks by providing visibility into the cloud, security policy enforcement, and threat detection. CASBs monitor activity and identify cloud apps, enabling organizations to develop and implement appropriate access policies. They can also help control file sharing and halt sensitive data transfers to unsecure environments.
Additionally, a CASB can provide analytics on the risk level of each interaction, and it can be configured to alert administrators when an abnormal event occurs. When selecting a CASB, the right solution for your organization will depend on your specific security needs and how your company uses the cloud. You should perform detailed POCs and reference calls to find the best fit. With the rise of remote work and BYOD, it is crucial to have clear visibility into users, devices, and business applications in your cloud environment. A CASB can deliver this visibility and enforce policies, even when employees are outside the corporate network. It can also detect misconfigurations and prevent unauthorized data leakage from the cloud to outside networks.
Visibility
Many companies need help maintaining a cohesive data security strategy with workflows involving multiple cloud apps, primarily when employees work remotely. CASBs address cloud app usage’s visibility and control challenges by automatically discovering the applications used and assessing their risk level to the company network. Using this information, they enforce security policies and prevent data leaks. CASBs are also effective at discovering and protecting sensitive data in unsanctioned cloud apps that users may have uploaded. Moreover, they can encrypt data at rest and in transit to mitigate the risks of ransomware and malware attacks.
Additionally, they provide threat detection capabilities and offer real-time monitoring to help businesses take quick action to stop cyber threats. CASBs are available as on-premises hardware and software or as a cloud service. The latter is recommended for greater scalability and cost savings. It is also essential to consider whether the CASB will integrate with your existing IAS and SSO systems and other security technologies. It would help if you also decided which CASB modes — Forward Proxy, Reverse Proxy, or both — you need for your environment.
Compliance
As companies move their data to the cloud, they face increasing compliance challenges. A CASB addresses these challenges by enforcing policies to protect data in the cloud. In addition, they protect against threats by providing DLP control and activity monitoring. These features are essential for large enterprise environments. A CASB also helps reduce costs by helping organizations discover their cloud services, report on spending, and find redundancies in functionality and license costs. In addition to visibility, CASBs offer governance of the cloud environment by cataloging and assessing the risk levels of SaaS apps. This enables IT to make better decisions about which cloud apps should be available to users and how much access to those apps they should have. For example, a CASB could limit access to a particular feature within an app based on location, device, and primary job function. Unlike traditional firewalls, which operate in the network’s data path and inspect all traffic, CASBs are designed to operate outside the data path and protect against threats by using advanced analytics and machine learning to analyze and intercept traffic from cloud applications. A CASB can be deployed in many ways, including on-premise hardware, software, or as a cloud service. In the latter case, CASBs are often deployed alongside Secure Web Gateways (SWGs) and Zero Trust Networking technologies in a Secure Access Security Edge (SASE) platform. This architecture offers comprehensive protection for IaaS with inline and out-of-band policies.
Cost
As more organizations use cloud-based software, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) applications, they must monitor and protect data outside the corporate network. This is where a cloud access security broker (CASB) comes in. CASB solutions can be deployed as cloud-based software or hardware appliances. They provide several services designed to keep unauthorized software, or Shadow IT, from entering the corporate network by ensuring that cloud application usage follows the organization’s established security policies. CASBs can also help organizations reduce overall cloud costs by discovering all the cloud apps used, identifying redundancies in functionality and licenses, and detecting duplicated data storage across multiple cloud applications. Combined, these cost savings can add up to significant savings over time. Finally, CASBs can help maintain compliance in the cloud by ensuring that cloud app usage meets strict data regulations set by various industries. CASBs can be a valuable addition to any cybersecurity strategy by providing visibility into unmanaged and unsanctioned cloud services that may have been adopted in the workplace. When evaluating CASB vendors, look for those that can control activities in managed and unsanctioned cloud applications rather than simply blocking them, as this is much less effective in preventing a threat.
