One of the key business requirements resulting from modern workplace adoption is protection across the cloud and cloud apps. With many businesses opting for remote working due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, IT (service) delivery comes with added concerns for controlling and monitoring access to business data from third-party cloud applications.
In the age of remote working, many organizations have been characterized by a boom in the adoption of cloud resources, in some cases, hybrid scenarios, to achieve more productivity and mobility. SecOps within these organizations are expected to, in turn, ensure availability, secure access to these new or/and existing solutions. This is where Microsoft Cloud App Security discovery can help.
Microsoft Cloud App Security Explained
This continued growth and development of cloud solutions amidst IoT, has called for businesses to rethink associated cyber threats and responses to combat them, which include implementing Client Access Security Brokers – cloud-based security solutions that help organizations protect their cloud applications against a variety of cyberthreats. CASBs have in the recent era become key elements of cloud protection strategies.
Wondering Where to Start?
Your journey towards visibility and controlled use of productivity cloud apps within the modern workspaces starts with an understanding of the app ecosystem your workforce accesses company resources from. Setting up Cloud discovery with Microsoft’s Cloud App Security would get you started with analyzing your cloud apps against risks they pose to your business.
Microsoft provides a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) – Microsoft Cloud App Security, which offers granulated control and visibility over a business’s cloud presence.
Microsoft Cloud App Security Trends
According to a report done by Forrester , businesses using Cloud App Security observed;
- 80% reduction of time and effort they spent on remediating security-related incidents.
- Elimination of threats via Microsoft CAS automated policies by 75%.
- A reduction of possible cyber-attacks by 40%
- Improved audit reporting, resulting in reduced costs and time spent on compliance.
An organization’s move to the cloud comes with extended flexibility for remote working and work-life balance. It however introduces a great load of IT-related challenges. Hence, the pressing need to ensure that access to critical data is secure and with the right controls in place.
Microsoft Cloud App Security comes with deep threat identification and analytics capabilities, presenting rich visibility and control over a business’s cloud services. It also easily integrates with existing industry-leading security, identity, and SIEM solutions.
With an MCAS implementation, you will be to realize the following key benefits;
- Visibility Across Your Cloud Estate – including where corporate data is accessed or stored in which cloud applications are security sense around it. MCAS connects to and utilizes enterprise-grade API’s for cloud apps from a variety of leading providers including M365, AWS, Box, GCP, Salesforce among others, to gain visibility in end-user actions based on their identities and to which data interact with.
- Shadow IT Control – End users have access to thousands of applications, and whether they are corporate cloud apps or consumer-facing applications, your business needs visibility and control over the costs, compliance, and risks associated with them. MCAS helps identify these apps and services, perform a risk assessment for healthier security and compliance control.
Having a good view of your sanctioned and unsanctioned applications, equipped with automated control drives you towards implementing adaptive controlled access for individuals or groups to match your business security projection.
- Regulatory Compliance – Moving to the cloud comes with many benefits. However, it also comes with additional and often complex compliance and security concerns. Therefore, a well-rounded compliance assessment and comprehensive threat protection tool for cloud assets are invaluable for those businesses. MCAS helps assess regulatory compliance and standards against discovered cloud applications and even limits access to corporate data by unsanctioned sources.
- Proactive Security – monitoring, identification, and automation of threat remediation is done without requiring admin hand holding – this reduces the time taken to mitigate and from recovering security hits, allowing users to focus on making strategic decisions and driving productivity.
- Integration With Your Existing Infrastructure – An estimated 1100 cloud applications are currently used in the workplace. Some of them are unsanctioned while others do not meet set basic compliance. MCAS seamlessly integrates with your security deployments for continued app discovery and lifecycle management control, for example, Windows Defender, Azure Active Directory, and leading Secure Web Gateways. MCAS goes a step further to assess and strengthen the security and compliance status of your existing and planned Infrastructure across major cloud platforms. Therefore, improving regulatory compliance and limiting the chances of a security breach.
- Extended Classification and protection of sensitive information – MCAS offers integration into Microsoft Azure Information Protection, for automated scanning, labeling, and data protection. This comes in handy to further apply policy-based control to sensitive data across your cloud application estate.
We are here to help
For any business that is considering a Cloud App Security Broker, a view into Gartner’s report on the market gives a good analysis of the leading vendors. Microsoft’s CASB is identified as a market leader – ranking highest on the ability to deliver against its security promises.
If you think Microsoft Cloud App Security could help your business, get in touch with us to arrange for one of the FITTS team to take you through the cloud app security journey, encompassing the below;
- Setting instant visibility, protection, and governance actions for your cloud apps
- Control your cloud apps with policies
- Set up Cloud Discovery
- Personalize your experience for cloud app security
- Organize the data according to your business’s needs.
