Microsoft Cloud App Security update: March 2021

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Along with the global challenges faced this past year, we’ve witnessed an unprecedented change in work patterns, access patterns, and threat frequency. The intensity and complexity of recent attacks means that customers need to protect their entire digital estate. In recent years, “global cyber incident costs reached a record high, with the average cost of a breach rising to $3.92 million with the biggest breaches topping $42 million.”¹ Every organization needs to have visibility and control of their environment, including identifying and understanding usage of SaaS apps, and protecting against application threats. Microsoft Cloud App Security, our leading cloud access security broker (CASB), provides a comprehensive set of capabilities to help you manage and control the use of cloud apps across your org – including visibility into inappropriate cloud app usage, sophisticated threat protection, secure access to cloud apps, ability to protect sensitive data, and much more.

 

When customers start their journey with a CASB, they often use it initially to discover and understand SaaS app usage across their organization – the “shadow IT” they may not know about, but could pose a potentially significant risk to the organization. This often leads to a risk assessment of the apps in use – and an explicit sanctioning or unsanctioning of apps. For example, an app that is not sanctioned for use can be blocked, helping ensure that users are only accessing business-approved apps as part of their work. Customers can also better protect against cloud-based threats (such as malware and compromised accounts), leveraging advanced detection, deep threat intelligence, incident correlation and analytics. Depicted below, from left to right, is the typical journey for Microsoft Cloud App Security customers:

 

The lifecycle we recommend to customers looks like a wheel, with every discovery cycle ending in thoughtful continuous monitoring: 

Your CASB should have broad coverage of cloud apps, manage and control access to these apps, protect against app risks, and ensure that configurations are aligned with recognized benchmarks so your organization can maximize security and productivity. This brief two-minute video highlights the value of Microsoft Cloud App Security:

 

Microsoft Cloud App Security experienced extensive growth over the past year, and we continue to significantly expand product functionality and evaluate future use cases – while at the same time investing in ongoing performance enhancements that flexibly scale to meet the needs of our ever-growing customer base. Stay tuned for more information in future blogs! 

 

We offer customers many resources to get the most out of Cloud App Security. We also recently published several blogs, each with new videos and resources:

 

Topic	Link
Shadow IT Discovery	Uncover your blind spots: seamlessly control cloud usage risks to your organization – Microsoft Tech Community
Secure Access	Adaptive Access for browser applications: Secure Access with Microsoft Cloud App Security – Microsoft Tech Community
Information Protection	Label and Protect your sensitive information: discover, classify and deploy policy – Microsoft Tech Community
Threat Protection	Prevent sophisticated attacks: Microsoft Cloud App Security and Microsoft 365 Defender – Microsoft Tech Community
Security Posture Management	Successful Security Posture Management: control your SaaS apps via Microsoft Cloud App Security – Microsoft Tech Community

 

We look forward to engaging in conversation with you as we continue to pursue our commitment of providing security for all! 

 

Sincerely, 

Joanna Harding, Product Marketing, Microsoft Cloud App Security  

 

Feedback 

We welcome your feedback or relevant use cases and requirements for this pillar of Cloud App Security by emailing CASFeedback@microsoft.com and mention the area or pillar in Cloud App Security you wish to discuss.  

 

Learn more 

For further information on how your organization can benefit from Microsoft Cloud App Security, connect with us at the links below: 

Join the conversation on Tech Community.   Stay up to date—subscribe to our blog.	Upload a log file from your network firewall or enable logging via Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to discover Shadow IT in your network.
Learn more—download Top 20 use cases for CASB.	Connect your cloud apps to detect suspicious user activity and exposed sensitive data.
Search documentation on Microsoft Cloud App Security.	Enable out-of-the-box anomaly detection policies and start detecting cloud threats in your environment.
Understand your licensing options.	Continue with more advanced use cases across information protection, compliance, and more.
Follow the Microsoft Cloud App Security Ninja blog and learn about Ninja Training.   Go deeper with these interactive guides:  Discover and manage cloud app usage with Microsoft Cloud App Security Protect and control information with Microsoft Cloud App Security Detect threats and manage alerts with Microsoft Cloud App Security Automate alerts management with Microsoft Power Automate and Cloud App Security

 

To experience the benefits of full-featured CASB, sign up for a free trial—Microsoft Cloud App Security. 

Follow us on LinkedIn as #CloudAppSecurity. To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity on Twitter, and Microsoft Security on LinkedIn for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity. 

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.