Leveraging Cloud Security with McAfee CASB In the past several years, many organizations have migrated their data centers to the cloud. While many organizations have significant investments in protecting data centers, those same security measures will not translate to the cloud. Cloud security requires continuous monitoring, visibility, and focus on identity and access. It is ultimately a shared responsibility of all users that access the cloud, whether it is customers, partners, or internal employees. Solutions such as McAfee CASB, MVISION Cloud, can help organizations address security in the cloud, enforcing policies, monitoring, and visibility. What is a CASB and What Does it Offer? A Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) is an intermediary between cloud service providers and users. It allows organizations to extend the reach of their existing security policies to the cloud. A CASB serves as a place to enforce policies and apply those policies to everything that your organization does in the cloud, regardless of what devices are being used. CASB's offering includes data loss prevention, malware detection, cloud governance, threat prevention, data encryption, SSO & IAN integration, and contextual access control. Cloud Access Security Brokers have become a vital part of cybersecurity because it allows businesses to protect corporate data while using the cloud. Maintaining the 4 Pillars of Cloud Security Visibility is a key component of cloud security. Organizations will have many employees accessing many applications in different cloud environments. With the large amount of cloud data being used every day, cloud data becomes outside of the view of IT monitoring. This data is no longer compliant with company security and risk policies without proper cloud security. To better protect data and users, a CASB provides visibility into cloud usage. During cloud discovery analysis, a risk assessment will be provided for each cloud service in use. This will allow security professionals to understand where user access should be further restricted, and where user access should be allowed. Visibility helps shape what controls are necessary to better protect data in the cloud. Compliance is an essential pillar of CASB. A driving factor for many businesses to use CASB is to enforce security in the cloud. If sensitive data is stored in the cloud without essential security protection, that data is at risk of being lost or stolen. Essential cloud security tools are necessary to maintain compliance regulations such as PCI DSS, ISO 27001, NIST 800-171, HIPPA, and more. A CASB will determine which areas of an environment are at the highest risk and take necessary action to protect data and provide direction. Data Security is another pillar of cloud security. Since the cloud allows for seamless movement and sharing of data among individuals, protecting data can become more costly and time- consuming without the proper tools. Traditional on-premise solutions are not designed to protect the data in the cloud, a CASB is required to provide visibility to the data that is moving throughout the cloud. Data leaks can be minimized by integrating traditional DLP (data loss prevention) tools and a CASB. Threat protection is the last pillar of CASB. A CASB can be used to pinpoint malicious behavior to minimize threat protection. McAfee CASB utilizes machine learning and user & entity behavior analytics (UEBA) technology. This allows the tool to detect and remediate threats as they happen. A CASB can use adaptive access control and dynamic malware analysis to block malware and prevent threats. Next Steps Whether your organization is first migrating data in the cloud, or you have fully shifted to the cloud, cloud security should be held as a priority. At Aurora, we can help you find a cloud security tool that works best for your organization’s goals. We offer professional services around McAfee CASB, MVISION in addition to other cloud security tools. Visit https://aurorait.com/ to learn more.
