As modern technology evolves, more businesses are replacing legacy, on-premises technology with scalable, flexible, and inexpensive computing power in the cloud. From accelerating innovations to cutting down IT costs, there are many reasons to move to the cloud. However, businesses need to implement the right cloud security tools or risk losing their data.

One of the best solutions for cloud security is Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB). It is a cloud-based or on-premises software placed between cloud service providers and cloud service consumers to help address security gaps. Here we'll discuss why every business should implement CASB solutions.

1. Prevent shadow IT operations

A CASB solution helps to reveal the cloud apps used by employees, along with the data used and the amount of time every employee spends using the app. This helps to prevent shadow IT operations, prevent dangerous usage of applications and resources that are not officially sanctioned, and identify users who are most vulnerable.

Cloud services are so extensive that users can easily use unauthorized SaaS services without permission from IT teams. Unsanctioned services may be privileged or lack the required security features to be compliant with regulatory or business requirements. A reliable CASB solution, such as this, monitors traffic, making it easy to stop shadow IT operations.

2. Prevent cyber threats

Cloud security threats can be external or internal and virtual or real. Implementing CASB solutions can help to enhance cloud security and mitigate these risks. In case of a compromised account, a suspicious login, or any other anomalous condition, the CASB tool will notify the IT team of the suspicious activity, allowing them to disable the account in question or address the issue promptly.

According to a recent study, 90% of cloud accounts are targeted by hackers. Most of these attacks begin with brute-force attacks, where cybercriminals try to guess users' credentials to gain access to an account. Another common method is credential phishing, where hackers try to dupe users to give up their logins via socially engineered text messages or emails. However, with a CASB tool, every activity is monitored in real-time, which helps to prevent these threats.

3. Prevent the loss of intellectual property

When employees are using cloud-based messaging or collaboration tools to share information and files, the risk of losing engineering designs, trade secrets, and other sensitive data is very high. Insufficient training of employees or negligence can lead to oversharing of links through public links that can be easily accessed by anyone. Insider threats are also real.

A powerful CASB tool should be integrated with a Data Loss Prevention platform. This is a crucial security feature that prevents data loss via cloud connections. It enforces stiff restrictions on user activities, eliminating the opportunity for malicious intents to do their business. These limitations can be time, location, access, or device restrictions, among others. For instance, if credit card information should not be saved to Dropbox, DLP will detect and prevent any upload of credit information to Dropbox.

Endnote

As businesses move to the cloud, they must look for ways to safeguard their data in the cloud. CASB solutions help to protect against a wide range of cloud security concerns, including curbing shadow IT operations and loss of data. What are you waiting for? Implement CASB solutions and enhance your enterprise cloud security.