What is CASB?

A cloud access security broker (CASB) is software or hardware that sits between users and their cloud service to enforce security policies as they access cloud-based resources. 

To further understand what is CASB, take note that it differs from the firewalls that organizations use to monitor and filter their network. CASBs can shed light into strange or unusual user activity and provide the company with cloud access control. Unlike firewalls, they provide deep visibility into cloud environments and offer granular control of cloud usage. 

CASBs are increasingly being used to protect against cloud security risks, comply with data privacy regulations, and enforce corporate security policies. They are increasingly important to organizations as employees use personal, unmanaged devices to access corporate networks from new, disparate locations, which creates even more cloud security risks.

The concept of CASB first emerged as the rise of cloud computing created the need for more consistent security across multiple cloud environments. Using CASBs, organizations were able to gain deeper visibility into what was happening in their cloud and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) deployments and protect all user and sensitive corporate data in these environments.

The threat landscape rapidly evolves, and with blended threats, multiple exploits, and obfuscation technologies that make detection more difficult, organizations need solutions that make protecting their data and users easier. CASBs are increasingly important to providing protection against malware and phishing attacks, securing access to cloud services, and ensuring cloud application security. 

CASBs are increasingly being used to protect against cloud security risks, comply with data privacy regulations, and enforce corporate security policies. They are increasingly important to organizations as employees use personal, unmanaged devices to access corporate networks from new, disparate locations, which creates even more cloud security risks.

The concept of CASB first emerged as the rise of cloud computing created the need for more consistent security across multiple cloud environments. Using CASBs, organizations were able to gain deeper visibility into what was happening in their cloud and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) deployments and protect all user and sensitive corporate data in these environments.

The threat landscape rapidly evolves, and with blended threats, multiple exploits, and obfuscation technologies that make detection more difficult, organizations need solutions that make protecting their data and users easier. CASBs are increasingly important to providing protection against malware and phishing attacks, securing access to cloud services, and ensuring cloud application security. 

What does a CASB do to improve cloud security? It ensures that traffic between user devices and cloud providers complies with organizations’ security policies. They provide insight into cloud application usage across cloud platforms, which is crucial in highly regulated industries with large, disparate workforces accessing multiple on-premises and cloud environments.

A CASB employs an auto-discovery process to identify the cloud applications being used, then pinpoints the applications, users, and other factors that pose a risk to the organization. The CASB cloud tool can then impose various access controls, compliance reporting tools, and other technologies to protect data and users. These include encrypting data the moment it is created until it sits at rest in the cloud, single sign-on (SSO) to provide one-time access across multiple applications, and user behavior analytics that identifies suspicious activity or signs of a potential cyberattack or data breach.

CASBs allow organizations to control and visualize the threats their cloud environments face. They use a three-step process to ensure organizations meet their enterprise security requirements:

1. Step 1—Discovery: A CASB solution uses an auto-discovery feature to list all the third-party cloud services being deployed by an organization, as well as all the employees using those services.
2. Step 2—Classification: The CASB will determine the level of risk of each cloud application the organization has deployed. It does this by assessing what the cloud application is, the sort of data it contains, and how data is being shared by users.
3. Step 3—Remediation: After assessing the risk of each application, CASB tools will use that information to create a policy that meets the organization’s security requirements. This will include data and user access policies, and the CASB will automatically take action if an event occurs that violates those policies.

CASBs also provide additional functionalities and protection, such as authentication to verify user identities and ensure only the right people get the right level of access to corporate resources, DLP to prevent users from leaking sensitive information outside the organization, and firewalls or web application firewalls (WAFs) to scan for, identify, and prevent malware.

They are also particularly useful to organizations that have shadow IT operations or allow users to procure and manage their own cloud environments. That is because CASBs can collect data that is useful not just for security but also for monitoring the usage of cloud services for budgeting purposes.

1. To govern cloud applications: CASBs provide a centralized view of an organization’s cloud environment, which helps them understand which users are accessing which applications, where they access them from, and the device they use to do so. CASBs also rate cloud services’ risk level and trustworthiness, as well as automate access controls and data permissions, which is crucial to governing cloud applications.
2. To defend against cloud-based threats: CASBs monitor suspicious activity, such as excessive logins, and use anti-malware and sandboxing technology to analyze and block potential threats in the cloud. As the sophistication and volume of cloud-based attacks increase, it is vital for organizations to understand the behavior and characteristics of the cloud threats they face and quickly respond to them.
3. To secure sensitive data: CASB solutions enable organizations to detect and remove the sharing of sensitive data outside their networks. They can also set policies that ensure only authorized users are allowed to access certain types of data.
4. To ensure cloud compliance: CASBs are a crucial tool in helping organizations meet increasingly stringent data and privacy regulations. They provide automated remediation, reporting capabilities, and policy creation and enforcement required to comply with industry and government-led mandates, rules, and standards.