CASB, written in full, is a cloud access security broker. It is an on-premises or cloud-hosted software that works as an intermediary between cloud services providers and users. CASB plays a big role in addressing security gaps in platform-as-a-service (PaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS), and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) environments. CASB lets organizations provide visibility and extend their reach on the policies on security from their available on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. As a part of enterprise security, CASBs allow businesses to use the cloud safely while offering protection to sensitive corporate data.
CASB Cloud access security broker Assessment or CASB works as a policy enforcement center and consolidates many security policy enforcement types as it applies to what businesses use in the cloud without regarding the sort of device you are trying to access like personal laptops, IoT devices, and unmanaged smartphones. With workforce mobility increase, BYOD growth, including unsanctioned employees, Shadow IT, and cloud usage, have been used to govern and monitor cloud applications like Office 365. Instead of outrightly banning cloud services, a CASB allows businesses to take a granular approach to protect data and enforce policies, thus utilizing cost-effective, time-saving, and productivity-enhancing cloud services.
Pillars of CASB
- Compliance
Businesses should maintain the responsibility to comply with the rules and regulations that govern the safety and privacy of enterprise data, even as they can outsource their data storage to the cloud. Security brokers of Cloud access assist in maintaining cloud compliance by addressing a variety of regulations for compliance like HIPAA and regulatory requirements like ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and many more. A CASB solution determines the highest risk areas in terms of compliance and the provision of direction to what should be the focus of the security team in resolving them.
- Visibility
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When the use of the cloud is outside the IT view, enterprise data is no longer bound by the company’s risk, governance, and compliance policies. Because of that, there is a need to safeguard confidential data, users, and intellectual property. This is where the CASB solution comes in. It provides comprehensive visibility into cloud application usage that includes user information like information as location and device. The analysis of cloud discovery includes risk assessment for every cloud service in use, which allows enterprise security professionals to decide whether to block the application or continue allowing access.
Threat Protection
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Third parties possessing credentials can steal or leak sensitive cloud services’ data through malicious intent or negligence. CASBs can provide a compilation of a comprehensive view of the regular patterns of usage and utilize it as a comparison basis. Using entity behavior analytics technology and machine learning-based users, CASBs can pinpoint or find and avert threats immediately if a person attempts to gain access or steal data improperly. CASB can use static and dynamic malware analysis, threat intelligence, prioritized analysis, and adaptive access control to block malware and protect against threats.
Data Security
Cloud adoption has abated most barriers that prevent effective collaboration at some distance. Seamless data movement can be beneficial and could also come at a tremendous cost for businesses interested in protecting confidential and sensitive information. On-premises DLP solutions protect data. However, their ability to do so will often not extend to cloud services while also lacking in the cloud context. Combining CASB with complex DLP allows IT to see the traveling of sensitive content to or from the cloud, cloud to cloud, and within the cloud. The deployment of security features such as collaboration control, data loss prevention, access control, management of information rights, tokenization, encryption, and enterprise leaks can be reduced.
Activity Logs
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Organizations should have complete knowledge and visibility over their usage in terms of sensitive data. CASBs provide logs that are detailed on all the transactions of the cloud. Therefore, any uploads, logins, or downloads are usually recorded. Specific application behaviors like external file sharing are logged in, which helps organizations know the data whereabouts if shared. These logs also provide the chance for the team IT to filter through them for gaining more visibility into the activity in the enterprise.
Shadow IT
It is also called unsanctioned applications and is classified according to risk, allowing organizations to decide the needs for blocking. More traditional CASBs have their resources focused on the manual detection and cataloging of unsanctioned cloud applications. Typically, this is done through scouts of people scouring the internet for a reactive evaluation of applications as they are adapted or as they arise.
Final Thought
Maintaining control and visibility in the environments where services previously offered on-premises are essential to meet compliance requirements and safeguard your enterprise from attacks. It also lets your employees use cloud services safely without introducing additional enterprise high risk. However, the use of CASB is essential for companies who wish to provide security to cloud usage.
It is also part of the entire overall security strategy, and businesses need to ensure defenses from device to cloud. Companies should consider the expansion of their CASB capabilities through securing a web gateway for safeguarding internet use and device data loss prevention solution to protect sensitive corporate data and intellectual property across the network. The main job of the security broker of cloud access is the provision of control and visibility over threats and data in the cloud for meeting enterprise security requirements.