CASBs complement an organization’s security architecture, protecting data from endpoint to cloud. In addition to enforcing security policies, a CASB provides advanced detection capabilities crucial for safeguarding the enterprise against sophisticated threats.
It includes detecting and stopping unannounced cloud applications like Dropbox or unauthorized data uploaded to unauthorized repositories. A CASB provides visibility into Shadow IT, helping administrators discover these unsanctioned systems and apps.
Authentication
Authentication is one of the most critical components of any CASB system. This capability ensures a security solution has complete visibility into cloud apps and services, including those with SSL-encrypted connections. It allows the CASB to detect and prevent data breaches, ransomware, malware, and other attacks. In addition, a CASB should be able to identify which users and devices are accessing a cloud service and allow or deny access based on enterprise policy.
Stemming Shadow IT threats was the primary use case that drove CASB adoption. The reality is that the threat landscape has since become much more pervasive and sophisticated. As a result, enterprises need to expand their protection capabilities from the movement of data (i.e., access and sharing) to the contents of the data itself. CASBs are a natural extension of existing data loss prevention (DLP) tools, protecting data movements in and out of a cloud environment and data at rest.
As organizations evaluate CASB vendors to support their use cases, they should look for vendors with multiple core capabilities. These include:
Visibility: As businesses move to a more flexible and collaborative work model with remote workers and bring-your-own-device policies, they must have visibility into cloud environments to understand how the applications used by employees are being used. CASB solutions with multimode architectures provide this capability via API-based integration with cloud applications and service providers and inline deployment as a forward proxy.
Compliance: While the cloud shared responsibility model makes achieving visibility into a company’s cloud infrastructure harder, CASBs help ensure that companies meet their privacy and regulatory requirements. This capability is provided through various features, such as auditing and reporting, logging, alerting, and granular risk-based authentication.
Security: As enterprises expand their business to the cloud, they must protect against the advanced threats that target them. A good CASB provides a comprehensive security platform, including sandboxing and behavioral analytics, anti-malware, phishing, and ransomware detection. It also includes encryption, tokenization, and a variety of other security capabilities.
Encryption
Organizations must adhere to many government and industry regulations regarding data privacy and responsible use. CASB solutions can help them achieve compliance by monitoring and reporting on activities, alerting them of potential violations, and proactively enforcing policies. They can also assist with establishing and assessing a baseline of regular user activity to identify atypical access patterns that could indicate a breach or data exfiltration attempt.
Encryption capabilities are a vital part of a CASB solution, ensuring that data in transit is secure and not accessible by attackers. It protects data integrity, helps meet regulatory compliance, and provides another layer of defense to prevent breaches. The right CASB will also offer the ability to secure files and data at rest on endpoints, preventing theft by malicious insiders or third parties.
Visibility is critical to user security, and a top-performing CASB will provide significant visibility into users’ activities across cloud applications and environments. It includes a detailed list of all files and resources accessed and details of how that information is being used, such as whether it is being shared externally or with other users.
In addition, the CASB should provide visibility into various other activities, such as device posture and threat detection. It is essential to have measures in place to detect any security incidents and promptly address them to ensure the safety and security of the system. The solution should also include a range of other capabilities, such as prioritized analysis, UEBA, and static and dynamic malware protection, to help protect against threats.
Finally, a good CASB can deploy in different deployment models based on the enterprise’s specific needs. It will support API-based integration with cloud apps and a forward proxy architecture, which is more common for deployments focused on protecting data in the cloud. It will allow enterprises to select the model that best suits their security requirements, with the option of combining deployment models where necessary for full coverage.
Evaluate the CASB vendor landscape to identify those with a proven track record of preventing breaches and helping clients restore compromised systems. Look for a vendor with an established customer base, intense media coverage, and a clear understanding of the business value of their solution. Many vendors will offer a trial, which can be helpful to understand if the product meets an organization’s specific security requirements.
Access Control
CASBs provide significant visibility into user activity in cloud environments, including infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and software as a service (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS). It is critical to address the risk of Shadow IT applications that employees use without permission from the enterprise. Visibility also allows organizations to identify unsanctioned apps in their environment so they can block them or apply granular access control that does not impact employee productivity.
CASB solutions can be deployed as on-premises hardware or software but are often delivered as a cloud-based service for higher scalability and lower costs. Depending on the deployment model, they may utilize APIs, reverse or forward proxying, and may incorporate native data loss prevention capabilities.
When evaluating CASB vendors, IT teams should consider the functionality in use cases to determine the capabilities that meet their needs. They should also determine the CASB’s role in authentication, authorization, alerts, and encryption. In addition, they should ensure that the CASB solution is compatible with their existing security tools and can integrate with their identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) and single sign-on (SSO) systems.
The CASB should be able to detect and block malware, ransomware, and advanced threats. It should be able to block or alert in real-time on suspicious traffic patterns and identify potentially compromised accounts. In addition, it should be able to sanitize and protect data in motion and at rest by using tokenization, encryption, and information rights management (IRM) methods.
Visibility into sensitive content traveling to, from, or between cloud environments is vital for meeting compliance mandates, particularly in highly regulated industries. By combining CASB with sophisticated data loss prevention (DLP) technology, IT teams can detect sensitive content in transit and enforce policies to minimize data leaks.
CASBs can be integrated into an organization’s secure access services edge (SASE) architecture with networking and security capabilities to secure hybrid work environments flexibly.
Monitoring
IT organizations must maintain visibility of data usage in cloud-based apps. With this visibility, it is possible to ensure that the use of information in the cloud is compliant with corporate data policies. CASBs can provide this visibility and offer security capabilities to manage compliance, control access to cloud environments and applications, and prevent data leaks to untrusted locations.
To do this, a CASB must discover all the company’s cloud infrastructure resources. Then, it must classify each resource based on the type of threat or potential security vulnerability it poses. It enables administrators to decide how to manage and secure each application or cloud-based service.
For example, a CASB may identify and alert administrators to unsanctioned apps used by employees, also known as shadow IT. These apps typically have direct access to corporate data and can pose a significant security risk. The CASB may then identify and block unauthorized access to this data or warn users when a suspicious activity is detected.
Malware prevention is another crucial capability for a CASB. Using scanning, filtering, or inspection technologies such as anti-malware, sandboxing, and packet inspection, the CASB can identify and stop threats before execution. It can also protect against losing sensitive information through email or chat applications, for example, by intercepting and encrypting files to a third-party system.
CASBs can be deployed on-premises, as hardware or software, or as a SaaS solution for scalability and speed of deployment. They can also be configured for deployment models such as API control, reverse proxy, or forward proxy. As you evaluate your options, look for a CASB that offers a flexible implementation model and support for multiple use cases to meet the needs of your business.