Thanks to steadily increasing internet speeds, more people and businesses are backing up their data in the cloud. They’re using remote servers and data centers that allow customers to access their information anywhere and avoid the dangers of local data loss. Many are also using cloud storage exclusively.
When you’re sending secure information to a remote location, you need to make sure your data is safe. Here’s where cloud access security brokers (CASBs) enter the discussion. CASB software works like a type of security checkpoint for streaming data. Find out why CASBs are becoming a central part of corporate security.
CASBs Promote Visibility
Visibility is one of the four basic pillars of CASB design. By acting as a cloud security gateway for application and data access, CASB software logs every upload and download that takes place between your computers and cloud servers. This log allows you to check and see whether employees are misusing the cloud on business time. It also helps you spot “shadow cloud” activity, a type of activity that occurs when work groups and individual employees set up their own personal cloud connections and place business data at risk in the process.
CASBs Provide Automatic Encryption
Encryption is — or should be — a central part of any cybersecurity system for a business or individual. Unless you have an encryption key, decrypting information demands computing capabilities more powerful than the encrypting machine and months or years of effort.
CASB software can automatically encrypt information as it enters your cloud storage servers. Even if hackers access those servers, your information will be effectively impossible to access.
CASBs Offer Proactive Threat Detection
Threat protection is another one of the CASB pillars. This feature works basically the same as a firewall or an antivirus program by looking for known malware programs and regulating internet access.
However, CASB software specializes in cloud connections. While a regular firewall would either allow or block cloud access, a CASB can check each access attempt to make sure that users who don’t have access permissions aren’t trying to access privileged information. CASBs also help business owners set access permissions and revoke them as needed.
CASBs Help to Deliver Cost Efficiency
By handling many tasks at once, CASB software can offer a level of security equal to the activities of a full IT team. In essence, more companies can secure their cloud access, and larger companies can reorganize their IT department to handle other cybersecurity threats while still keeping oversight on cloud security. Compared to the alternatives, CASB software is both efficient and safe.
Cloud access security brokers have been gaining popularity because cybercrime is on the rise and cloud computing has (until now) been a weak point in online security. With the proper CASB software, corporations and individuals alike can use cloud storage and sharing to keep their sensitive pieces of information safe from hackers while still taking advantage of all the benefits the cloud has to offer.
