Cloud Access Security

For 10 years, Microsoft has been studying and analysing the threat landscape of exploits, vulnerabilities and malware. We’ve used data gathered from more than 600 million computers worldwide to develop one of the most complete security data sets in the world.

Our year-round research is then collected and published in The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, a globally accredited, 160-page report that comprehensively addresses the security landscape. This year, in an effort to drive awareness of key insights and trends, we’ve also developed A Quick Guide to the Most Important Insights in Security, an abridged, to-the-point resource that readers can use to learn the important factors in the complex matrix of Cybersecurity.

In this eBook, we’ve captured our Top 10 key findings. Read on to learn critical information about vulnerability rates, exploits in key software programs, the locations with the highest infection rates and much more.

With more than 6,000 vulnerabilities disclosed per year across the industry, it’s extremely important to ensure that all of the software in your IT environment is assessed and updated. Here are our Top 10 key findings to help increase your security level.

41.8% of all vulnerability disclosures are rated as highly severe —a three-year high

Why it matters

Vulnerability disclosures are revelations of software vulnerabilities to the public at large. Disclosures can come from a variety of sources, including publishers of the affected software, security software vendors, independent security researchers and even malware creators. Attackers and malware routinely attempt to use unpatched vulnerabilities to compromise and victimise organisations.

Vulnerability disclosures across the industry increased 9.4% between the first and second halves of 2015, to just above 3,300.

These are the high-severity vulnerabilities that security teams dread as they might enable remote attackers. With more than 6,000 vulnerabilities publicly disclosed per year across the industry, it’s extremely important that all software in your IT environment gets assessed and updated on a regular basis.

Install software patches promptly, monitor networks for suspicious activity and quarantine devices that exhibit unusual behaviour.

Download full report/ebook – https://1drv.ms/b/s!AlnJCCuzimoY1Z1-WnGNhZ3HOE16gw

How do you ensure secure and compliant access to cloud services without losing the agility and cost benefits that these services provide? This report gives you an overview of the market for Cloud Access Security.

The easy availability of IT services delivered as cloud services together with the revolution in the range of devices that are used to access these services has created challenges for organisations in the areas of security and compliance. Employees and associates can use their personal cloud services to perform their jobs without reference to their employer.

Line of business managers can acquire cloud services without performing the risk assessment or considering the impact of these on compliance.

To compound the problem, mobile devices can be used to access these services from outside of the organisational perimeter. In order to meet these challenges, a market for products known as Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs) has developed.

CASBs address the challenges of security and compliance around the use of cloud services. They provide security controls that are not available through existing security devices such as Enterprise Network Firewalls, Web Application Firewalls and other forms of web access gateways. They provide a point of control over access to cloud services by any user and from any device.

CASBs are really a workaround that covers the unanticipated threats posed by the rich variety of cloud services available and the way in which organisational users have accepted their use without fully understand the risks that this poses to the enterprise. In an ideal world, the controls provided by CASBs would be incorporated into the regular security infrastructure.

CASBs were primarily focused on controlling access to Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud services such as: CRM, ERP, Office Productivity Tools and Service Desks. They are evolving into tools to control access to a wider range of cloud services including Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). They typically provide functionality in the following areas:

● Detect Shadow Cloud – they help to detect and identify the use of cloud services within an organisation as well as who is using these services. This provides the organisation with an overall view of the cloud services being used and performs a risk assessment of this use.

● Access Control – they provide a way to control access to cloud services. This may be at a service by service level – giving the ability to prohibit or allow the use of specific cloud services. They may also enable more finely grained access control based on individual user identities, devices or transactions.

● Data Security – the products provide functionality to implement data security controls. These may include controls based on the classification or types of data as well as functionality to discover sensitive data that is held in or being moved to a cloud service. Controls may be implemented through detection, warning, quarantining, blocking, encrypting or tokenizing data. These controls may be more or less granular.

● Cyber Security – the products may control which devices have access to specific cloud services and hence prevent access from unregulated devices. They may also provide mechanisms to monitor access behaviours to help identify hijacked accounts and malware.

Download full ebook – OR