As organizations shift data to the cloud, protecting it becomes more challenging. CASB solutions extend the capabilities of DLP tools to protect cloud environments, applications, and data. CASBs monitor and control data in motion and at rest and identify risky infrastructure configurations. They also help administrators to detect unauthorized devices and apps that could cause a data breach.
Encryption
CASB security enables companies to secure data in motion, at rest, and in the cloud. This includes protecting data from being stolen by unauthorized users such as disgruntled employees, hackers, and digital enemies. It also encrypts unauthorized data from leaving the company’s network as uploaded or downloaded from cloud applications and services.
The CASB monitors activity across the entire corporate network to detect security events that might indicate a breach. It then takes automated action to stop the breach in its tracks.
This can include shutting down the infected system, terminating a malicious connection, and encrypting sensitive data. It also enables organizations to monitor the performance and availability of the cloud infrastructure they depend on.
For example, a CASB configured to encrypt all data destined for the cloud helps prevent breaches caused by malware that can be introduced at any point between an organization’s systems and the cloud-based infrastructure.
It can also mitigate phishing attacks and other threats that use advanced techniques to avoid detection. The CASB can also help organizations achieve compliance with strict industry and regional security regulations.
A CASB can scan for compliance gaps and vulnerabilities, then help administrators implement the correct policies to close those gaps. It can also provide visibility into shadow IT and unauthorized devices to help ensure security rules are applied consistently throughout the enterprise.
Authentication
When preventing data loss, a CASB helps organizations protect data at rest and in transit by encrypting it. This prevents hackers from reading sensitive information if they intercept the data or steal a device that contains the encrypted file.
Authentication is a crucial security function ensuring only authorized users can access protected data. By analyzing the behavior of users and comparing it against pre-approved patterns, a CASB can detect suspicious activity and block malicious files before they have a chance to cause disruption or data loss.
Unlike traditional data protection solutions that only safeguard information being used on-premises, a CASB provides visibility into cloud usage to help organizations identify and address risks and threats.
It also ensures that policies are applied consistently, regardless of where the data is being accessed from or where it is stored. In addition to providing visibility, CASBs can help organizations maintain protocols and compliance with industry and government regulations, including regional mandates like GDPR and HIPAA.
They do this by detecting misconfigurations in the cloud infrastructure, monitoring traffic to identify and classify devices and applications, alerting administrators, and automatically remediating the issues.
Additionally, they can provide visibility into Shadow IT and unauthorized applications to prevent unauthorized use of cloud services. Finally, CASBs can help organizations monitor and enforce access controls to prevent data breaches from stolen or compromised credentials.
Access Control
With cloud-based applications and infrastructure, it becomes difficult for an organization to monitor where data is used. A CASB provides this visibility and ensures that any cloud application or environment complies with the organization’s data policies.
CASBs offer a wide range of security capabilities to help protect data at rest, in motion and use. These include a wide range of anti-malware protection, including file analysis and sandboxing.
They also provide network security functions like packet inspection, URL filtering, and endpoint management. In addition, a CASB will often incorporate threat prevention and DLP. Finally, a CASB will encrypt any data in use or at rest in the cloud, protecting it from theft and stopping cyber attacks before they can be executed.
CASBs also include field-level data encryption to prevent sensitive information from leaving a company system. To maximize the benefit of a CASB, it’s essential to understand its four main capabilities.
Your CASB should include a discovery process, a classification engine, gateways and proxies, and a security architecture. Some vendors combine these functions into a single product, while others break them out into different products.
Data Loss Prevention
CASBs are a crucial element of data loss prevention because they provide visibility into the enterprise’s entire cloud environment, including software-as-a-service applications that may not be approved.
This is essential in a time where bring your device (BYOD) policies are shared and where it is difficult for security managers to keep a line of sight on everything that may be moving around the company’s network.
A CASB can detect suspicious activities and alert administrators using benchmarks and continual traffic analysis. It can also help protect files from being compromised and accessed by attackers by encrypting data-at-rest, monitoring and controlling data-in-motion, and validating authenticated users.
CASBs can also help with regulatory compliance by automating reporting and detecting possible violations of industry standards and regulations like FERPA, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. A good CASB solution should offer all these features without negatively impacting network performance or user productivity.
In addition, it is essential to look for a CASB solution that provides a variety of deployment models so you can choose the best fit for your organization. When selecting a CASB provider, evaluate media coverage and analyst reports to find a vendor with the proven track record and feature set to meet your organization’s specific use cases. Lastly, requesting a demo or trial from a vendor before purchasing is always a good idea.
