Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) technology might be a familiar term if you have been looking for ways to improve your cyber security in the past year. Cloud service has changed the way businesses tackle security due to its mobile nature. Firewalls around the internal network to keep attackers out no longer works thanks to cloud technology. Business data is continuously moving across the public domain from app to app or device to device. IT cannot gain visibility into the business data as well since it is outside the perimeter of the traditional security.
This is where security solutions such as CASB come in to help improve the business’ security. It is in simple terms, a software solution which stands before cloud service provider and user to enforce a business’ security policies. CASB was created with the focus to help organization protect their data from security breaches that fully integrate cloud with their current security infrastructure and policies.
To better understand how CASB works, we need to look at the four pillars upon it is built around:
Visibility
Having vision on users, devices, files, and connections is key to having good security. CASB allows IT teams to monitor what is happening across all third-party apps and enforce specific controls. Having visibility also allows IT find anomalous or suspicious activity such as different log in locations in drastically different locations. Reports and remediations can be done immediately as to limit the stop the unauthorized log in and to verify its authenticity. It also allows IT teams to find the so called “Shadow IT” or unsanctioned cloud apps and check if they meet the business security requirements.
Threat Protection
As stated above, CASB specializes in securing the connections between the cloud and users. It offers businesses a variety of protection features such as anti-phising, malware (including ransomware), and account takeover protection. On top of that, it can keep track of user behavior across their different application usage to find abnormal activity and remediate and report it.
Data Security
Sensitive and confidential business data are now going through and residing in the cloud which existing security can’t account for. CASB can help protect your company from situations like data leaks through labeling, tracking and restricting access to files and other specific information as it travels from device to the cloud. It also can provide different ways of protecting the data through methods such as encryption, tokenization and extremely granular access controls.
Compliance
CASB helps ensure compliance with an organization’s internal security policies, but more importantly, can help with industry compliance requirements. This includes such policies like PII (Personally Identifiable Information), PHI (Personal Health Information), the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). This is done through tools within CASB that have mechanisms for auditing as well as reporting compliance issues in real time.
Moving forward, the growth of cloud services means that many companies will have to soon adapt their security to face threats outside the traditional environment. CASB would be a good start for those companies heavily invested in cloud technology or are projected to in the near future.
To learn more about CASB or if your business is looking for help in implementing it to your business, you can email us your inquiries at marketing@ctlink.com.ph!