Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) software is a modern tool that enforces security policies to protect cloud applications from cyber threats. Without a proper security policy, your access permissions could be all over the place. You would lack visibility into who has access to what cloud resources. This could increase your cloud resource consumption and costs.
What’s worse? Vulnerabilities and lack of access controls could result in unauthorized access, privilege escalations, data breaches, shadow IT, insider threats, and other cybersecurity risks.
In this article, you will learn how to protect your cloud applications and assets from these risks by understanding CASB software, its importance, the best CASB software available in the market, and how to choose the right CASB software.
What is CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker)?
Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) is a cloud-based security intermediary between cloud service providers and users that helps enforce security policies in your organization. This helps protect sensitive business data from cyber attacks, such as unauthorized access, privilege escalations, malware attacks, etc.
CASB software comes with various capabilities, such as identity verification, access control, data loss prevention, URL filtering, sandboxing, browser isolation, shadow IT discovery, packet inspection, and more. You can deploy CASB security in multiple ways, including API-based, hybrid, and forward and reverse proxy.
CASB has four pillars of security — compliance, visibility, threat protection, and data security. It serves as a data guard that addresses security gaps and provides a complete solution for managing and controlling cloud risks. It combines multiple security policies, such as credential mapping, authentication, malware detection, and encryption, to secure cloud applications.
Need for CASB Software
More businesses are adopting a hybrid workforce, hiring talents from across the world and using cloud services, such as SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS platforms to run their operations swiftly. Although cloud services are flexible, scalable, and easy-to-use no matter where you are, they aren’t immune to security risks. The use of unsanctioned and unsecured cloud apps increases the risk of compliance violations and data breaches.
CASB software can discover and monitor shadow IT, manage unsanctioned apps, and enforce security policies. Here’s why businesses need CASB cloud software:
- Improves data protection: Data stored in the cloud is at risk from unauthorized access, theft, and insider attacks. CASB software offers powerful data security capabilities, such as data encryption, contextual access controls, and data loss prevention.
- Manages cloud operations: Reliable CASB software effectively manages cloud operations and workflows. It prioritizes privileged accounts and enforces permutations and combinations of permissions, and restrictions when a user accesses data.
- Reduces advanced threats: Cyber threats target cloud environments as there are many security gaps, such as misconfigurations and vulnerabilities in applications. As a result, businesses face many problems, including hijacking attempts, malware injections, and zero-day exploits. CASB software detects and eliminates ransomware and malware, identifies suspicious behavior, and blocks unauthorized access.
- Centralized visibility: Many large enterprises operate in multi-cloud environments and use cloud services from Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, AWS, and other platforms. Managing security and controlling access across these service providers could be challenging as you have minimal visibility. With CASB software, you get complete visibility into your cloud services, which makes it easier to enforce security policies and integrate with various security tools to prevent threats.
- Support BYOD policies and remote work: Remote work and bring-your-own-device policies have been in demand in recent years. Employees access cloud apps from various networks and devices, which could have security vulnerabilities. CASB software secures access to the cloud resources, protects data exfiltration from unsanctioned devices, and eliminates risks.
- Compliance management: CASB software manages requirements for regulations, such as CCPA, HIPAA, GDPR, and more. It provides audit reports, aligns data handling with industry standards, and offers automated tools to enforce compliance policies. As a result, you can view and control cloud application usage, prevent data loss, and avoid non-compliance penalties and fines.
CASB Software in 2025
Cloud-native Access Security Brokers can help organizations migrate to the cloud safely. They can protect users, apps, and data. Check out these 6 CASB software solutions below and see what they can do for enterprises.
SentinelOne CASB Software
SentinelOne Singularity™ Cloud Security is a reliable cloud security platform that provides an advanced CASB solution. It uses AI to address security gaps and vulnerabilities and offers a comprehensive set of tools to secure your SaaS applications, data storage, and integration tools.
The platform offers agentless deployment of cloud apps, eliminates misconfigurations, assesses compliance requirements, provides graph-based asset inventory, and automated security policy enforcement. It eliminates common cybersecurity threats, including hidden vulnerabilities, fragmented visibility, and overextended cloud permissions.
Take a product tour to understand how the platform works.
Platform at a Glance
- Advanced cloud security posture management (CSPM): You’ll get complete visibility and control over your cloud apps across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS platforms and minimize access violations.
- Integrated cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP): Protect your cloud assets from build to deployment, runtime, and beyond with SentinelOne’s CNAPP. It’s a cost-effective, highly flexible, and resilient solution that offers full control and real-time response.
- Cloud workload protection platform (CWPP): With AI-based real-time protection, it monitors, detects, and addresses your workloads from threats. It supports physical servers, containers, serverless instances, Kubernetes and virtual machines across on-prem, hybrid, private, or public clouds.
- Cloud detection and response (CDR): It contains, neutralizes, and remediates cyber threats with full forensics telemetry, expert-led incident response, and a pre-made detection library.
Features:
- Comprehensive and unified platform: SentinelOne offers a unified and comprehensive platform with features, including detailed analytics, autonomous AI-based protection, threat hunting, world-class threat intelligence, and application protection.
- Advanced configuration and protection: The platform deploys AI-powered protection to reduce misconfigurations, provides control of your cloud apps remotely, and responds to threats immediately. It also offers no code/low code hyperautomation workflows for faster operations.
- Multi-cloud support: The platform supports on-prem, public, private, and hybrid clouds and protects every cloud asset. It also discovers unknown cloud deployments and secures your sensitive information.
- Industry-leading performance: It helps you make your IT infrastructure fully redundant and resilient without disturbing your operations. It also increases business agility with hyperautomation.
- Automated posture checks: The platform checks the security posture of your cloud architecture continuously. This helps you manage your compliance with industry guidelines and address security gaps to avoid penalties.
Core problems that SentinelOne Eliminates
- SentinelOne’s CASB provides full visibility into your cloud services for managed and unmanaged devices.
- Outlines policies to restrict the sharing of sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access.
- Enforces security policies across your cloud environments to ensure consistent security controls are applied across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS platforms.
- Identifies and blocks malware using AI-powered threat detection, integration with endpoint protection, and behavioral analytics.
- Implements strict access controls, such as device compliance checks, context-aware policies, and user authentication to ensure only authorized users can have access to sensitive information and resources.
- Automates incident response by providing pre-configured workflows and real-time alerts to eliminate threats.
- Simplifies regulatory compliance by deploying strict policies and maintaining audit reports to meet industry standards and compliance requirements.
Testimonial
Raymond Schippers, Head of Threat Detection and Response at Canva says: “I would describe SentinelOne in three words. Reliability, performance, and scalability.”
Explore how users feel about SentinelOne’s CASB software on Gartner Peer Insights and PeerSpot.
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access scans all ports, traffic, and protocols to discover new applications and redefines SaaS security. It protects your hybrid workforce and applications with next-generation CASB cyber security software, DLP, FWaaS, ZTNA 2.0, and SWG. With its common policy framework, Prisma Access allows you to regain control over your cloud environment and redefine access levels for critical resources.
Features:
- Covers all your applications, whether they are cloud-based or on-premises, to keep your business secure.
- Offers ML-powered enterprise DLP to protect sensitive data and detection engines.
- Provides content-aware technologies to discover hard-to-detect secrets exchanged between cloud applications.
- Detects compromised accounts and malicious insider threats accurately in real-time.
- Resolves misconfigurations for all your applications with simplified workflows.
Explore user reviews on Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Applications lets you secure your applications, improve your app posture, and protect sensitive data. It lets you visualize your application infrastructure and discover, manage, control, and configure your SaaS applications.
Features:
- Allows employees to access and use files in applications safely by classifying and protecting data in use, in motion, and at rest.
- Gives you insights into permissions, apps, and privileges that want access to your sensitive data on behalf of third-party applications.
- Defends your cloud applications from sophisticated cyberattacks with scenario-based detection.
- Assess risk factors and discover shadow IT.
- Secures your organization’s resources and access points with real-time controls.
- Investigates configuration gaps in your applications in Microsoft Secure Score, so you can secure your cloud apps.
- Monitors, protects, and governs line-of-business and OAuth-enabled apps through Microsoft Graph APIs.
- Combines data loss prevention, integrated threat protection, app-to-app protection, and SaaS security posture management to ensure full coverage of your cloud apps.
- Detects and remediates unusual behavior, rogue applications, and compromised users immediately.
Find out what users have to say about Microsoft Defender for Cloud on PeerSpot and GPI.
Netskope One
Netspoke One allows organizations to adopt cloud applications and services without facing security risks. It delivers adaptive security across platforms, users, and data against modern risks, such as unauthorized transfer of sensitive data between cloud apps. Its CASB solution lets you identify and view cloud apps in use, whether unmanaged or managed by IT.
Features:
- Offers AI-powered, LLM-based CASB solution to categorize risks automatically and provide detailed insights into risks on your SaaS apps.
- Utilizes over 1800 file types and 3000+ data classifiers to detect and protect your data using AI, deep learning, ML, Natural Language Processing(NLP), groundbreaking trainable, convolutional neural networks, and more.
- Provides CASB dashboard, powered by aggregated risk intelligence across API, CASB inline, and SSPM controls, to manage your security.
- Simplifies policy definitions, security operations, and incident response.
- Enables organizations to use generative AI like Bing AI, Google Bard, and OpenAI ChatGPT securely and responsibly with ML-based risk categorization.
Read user reviews on Netskope to understand how useful the platform is.
Symantec CloudSOC
Symantec CloudSOC is a cloud-based service that enables organizations to use cloud apps and services securely from anywhere. It provides visibility, threat protection, and data security. You’ll get capabilities to eliminate malicious content in cloud apps, manage compliance risks, and eliminate shadow IT.
Features:
- Controls shadow IT with visibility across multiple apps and evaluates whether the data and apps you use meet applicable industry standards and compliance requirements.
- Secures your data from insider thefts and accidental loss.
- Assigns risk scores to incidents and users through machine learning and CloudSOC user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA).
- Gives you insights into users’ activity, compromised accounts, and behavioral-based user risk score.
- Allows you to detect and classify PII, PCI, PHI, and other vital data and enforce data sharing, storage, and access policies.
- Secures employees’ email, web, and unsanctioned and sanctioned cloud apps against data loss, malicious breach, and accidental exposure with a unified policy engine.
- Controls BYOD or unmanaged devices to secure cloud app access in managed devices.
Here’s what users have to say about Symantec CloudSOC.
McAfee Skyhigh Security
McAfee Skyhigh Security provides an AI-powered Security Service Edge (SSE) solution to secure your sensitive data, manage compliance, and prevent malicious threats. This means you can continue your operations without affecting your ongoing operations. It provides advanced DLP to protect data via a unified data policy across cloud, email, web, and private apps.
Features:
- Gives control and visibility into your cloud apps and data with real-time threat prevention.
- Provides device-based controls using a multi-mode cloud solution from a single dashboard.
- Extends data protection capabilities across network, endpoints, and web with SSE framework.
- Analyzes multiple cloud events with ML to identify and eliminate threats.
- Reduces misconfiguration risks by auditing your cloud apps continuously and eradicating detected vulnerabilities.
- Assessing sanctioned cloud services and Shadow IT to improve your cloud environment, review policy violations, and implement recommendations.
- Helps you configure and fine-tune your CASB deployment.
Find out real users’ experience with McAfee Skyhigh Security.
Important Considerations When Choosing CASB Software
With data privacy laws getting stricter and cyber attacks happening every other day, managing and securing sensitive data across cloud environments has become important for every business. CASB software comes with modern technologies and solutions to secure your business and customer data, improve visibility across cloud apps, and ensure compliance.
You can find many CASB software in the market offering different deployment options, useful capabilities, multiple integrations, and varying pricing models. So, choosing the right CASB becomes confusing. Look for CASB software with powerful functionalities, comprehensive security offerings, and a user-friendly deployment process. Consider the factors below while choosing CASB software:
- Business needs: Understand your unique needs while selecting appropriate CASB software for cloud apps. Make sure the solution you choose aligns with your organization’s goals, commitment to innovation, and productivity requirements.
- Comprehensive security features: Check whether the CASB software provides robust policies to secure sensitive data in the cloud apps. Look for software that offers real-time threat protection, prevents phishing and malware attacks, and provides granular access controls.
- Deployment options: While selecting a CASB software, ensure it offers easy deployment options and can integrate with your existing security systems to improve your security posture. Check for API-based integrations for better compatibility.
- Multi-cloud support: CASB software must support the cloud service you use, such as Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Salesforce, and Microsoft Azure. Check whether your CASB can discover shadow IT to block unauthorized cloud usage.
- Performance: When your organization grows, your cloud security needs also grow. So, the CASB software must scale easily to support growing cloud needs and users, and can handle increasing volume of data traffic without degrading performance.
- Software reputation: Look for users’ reviews and ratings to know the track record of the CASB software provider in the cybersecurity industry. Also, check for 24/7 support services and regular software updates, so you get quality support to resolve security issues and queries anytime you need.
- Compliance management: The CASB software you choose must comply with industry-specific requirements, including HIPAA, CCPA, PCI DSS, and GDPR. Check if the software provides automated auditing and reporting features to minimize the burden on your team.
Conclusion
CASB software helps you enforce security policies between cloud service providers and users. With its AI and ML-driven capabilities, CASB detects threats, unauthorized access, critical data transfer, and misconfigurations to protect your cloud applications.
Modern organizations use next-generation CASB software to strengthen their security posture, gain deeper visibility into their cloud environments, detect and mitigate threats, and improve compliance across multiple cloud environments.
Are you ready to experience a powerful CASB tool to safeguard your cloud apps? Explore SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security solution to get advanced security features and functionalities.
FAQs
1. What are the primary functions of CASB Software?
The primary function of CASB software is to enforce security policies between cloud service providers and users, providing data control, analytics, and visibility. It monitors user activities, protects your organization from malicious threats, manages regulatory compliance, and reviews proxy and firewall logs.
2. How does CASB Software improve Cloud Security Posture?
CASB software improves cloud security posture by enforcing data loss prevention (DLP), data access controls, and compliance. With deeper visibility, you can easily identify and eliminate threats. It also monitors network traffic to find unsanctioned apps, evaluates your security posture, and blocks risky apps.
3. What industries benefit most from CASB Solutions?
Many organizations, from small to large, depend on cloud services to promote remote work and BYOD policy. Industries like financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, SaaS providers, government bodies, online retail businesses, and educational institutions implement CASB software to handle sensitive data from cyber threats and operate in cloud environments.
4. What should I prioritize when selecting CASB Software?
When selecting CASB software, focus on its core functionalities, such as data loss prevention, ML-based threat detection, access controls, shadow IT discovery, and encryption. Apart from this, check features like comprehensive visibility into cloud environments, multi-cloud support, deployment flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and integration capabilities.
5. How does CASB Software integrate with other Cloud Security Tools?
CASB software integrates with other cloud security tools through API-based and proxy-based deployment options. You can also choose a hybrid model to combine both approaches. It integrates with your existing security solutions to secure your cloud apps.
6. Can CASB Software detect and mitigate malware in Cloud Applications?
Yes, CASB software is a powerful tool that can detect and mitigate malware in cloud applications. Cloud-based collaboration tools and SaaS platforms are increasing, and organizations face malware risks that infiltrate their cloud apps. CASB software provides advanced detection techniques, proactive mitigation strategies, and real-time monitoring to address these risks.
7. What are the Benefits of using CASB Software?
CASB (cloud access security broker) software offers many benefits including:
- Data security
- Advanced threat detection
- Cloud apps risk assessment
- Granular access controls
- Shadow IT discovery
- Unsanctioned app identification
- Integration with existing security tools
- Improved regulatory compliance
- Complete visibility into cloud usage