Mar 16 2020
Security

Review: Small Businesses Get Big Protection With SonicWall Cloud App Security

This next-gen software is tailor-made for small businesses that do much of their work in the cloud.

Small businesses often have constrained resources, especially in their IT departments. And today, these businesses are as much in the crosshairs of cyberattackers as their enterprise counterparts.

SonicWall strives to level the playing field with the Cloud App Security platform, recognizing the pain points small businesses face by creating a cloud-based solution that addresses IT overhead. Businesses migrating to the cloud benefit from API-based security that requires minimal deployment overhead for a seamless user experience. And those that have already gone to the cloud will additionally benefit from easy setup, management and optimization capabilities.

Feeling At Ease with Email

Phishing may account for 90 percent or more of all data breaches, and email is becoming the most frequently used Software as a Service application in virtually every environment. Protecting this threat vector requires employee-based cybersecurity awareness training combined with several of the features that the SonicWall Cloud App Security platform offers.

A multi-engine network sandboxing service that includes attachment sandboxing, advanced URL and anti-virus protection, and business email compromise protection is just one of the effective features included. The platform also offers an advanced threat protection capability that prevents malware propagation from applications such as Dropbox and OneDrive, which are becoming ubiquitous office applications for moving large files.

The overall visibility the Cloud App software creates is a primary selling point. Cloud App identifies all the cloud services used by an organization’s end users, so administrators can see what their clouds are doing.

The depth of actionable insights includes east-west traffic maps between cloud environments, a level of detail seldom available to IT security teams within small businesses. As a result, businesses can identify and remediate a problem whenever a user authenticates to an unsanctioned application.

Make Sure Access Is Secure

Cloud App Security addresses access to privileged information or data by offering granular access controls that prevent the upload of sensitive files. This data access is based on role-based policy tools and data classification features that include loss prevention technologies. User activity can be monitored, with access to sensitive data blocked or limited. And since it creates an audit trail of all completed or attempted actions, which even extends to real-time and historical events, it’s ideal for organizations that need to focus on compliance. 

SonicWall Cloud App Security

Taking IT Out of the Shadows

In our testing, Cloud App Security impressed us by addressing shadow IT in addition to its core functions. SonicWall Cloud App Security enables organizations to not only monitor and manage cloud application usage, but also to reduce the risk of shadow IT, which are programs running on a network that IT teams are unaware of. These are usually software programs downloaded by employees from the cloud without authorization.

Delivered through the Capture Security Center, this critical component of the platform sits between cloud service users and cloud applications. It monitors all activity and enforces security policies, delivering real-time visibility and control of cloud application usage.

A comprehensive dashboard allows administrators to monitor usage of risky applications, track user activity, and block or unblock policies on authorized or unauthorized applications. Features like Shadow IT Discovery use existing firewall logs to automate cloud discovery and identify applications being used, including risk posture and profile. When we tried to attach an unauthorized program to the cloud, Capture Cloud immediately flagged it as a piece of shadow IT.

Businesses can also establish policies for unmanaged cloud applications. This is executed based on application risk scores created through regulations, security certifications or reputation databases. The feature lets businesses classify user resources and applications as either approved by IT or prohibited to end users.

MORE FROM BIZTECH: Watch how to effectively adopt AI for cybersecurity.

SonicWall Cloud App Security provides two maps regarding the application environment: a dashboard and a discovery view. The dashboard provides a real-time view of the number and categories of cloud applications being used, and the number of users accessing cloud applications. This view includes insights on the amount of data traffic used by cloud applications, all of which combine to produce a robust perspective of potential shadow IT affecting your enterprise.

The discovery view adds further actionable insights by providing details about both the cloud applications and end users who accessed those applications. When paired with ability that Cloud App Security has to provide real-time application visibility, businesses receive the added capability to monitor usage, including details of traffic volume, user activity and applications being used parsed by location.

An IT team can’t fix what it doesn’t know about, and that is what makes shadow IT so dangerous. The ability to detect and restrict shadow IT as a core function of SonicWall Cloud App Security acts as force multiplier for protecting cloud networks of every stripe.

SonicWall Cloud App Security

THREAT INDICATORS PER EMAIL: More than 300
TYPES OF EMAIL SECURITY: Attachment sandboxing, advanced URL protection and business email compromise
SCANNING ENGINE: Capture ATP service with Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection
NUMBER OF SONICWALL SENSORS: 1 million

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