CASB, DLP, SSPM: So Many Terms, Such Little Clarity

There are so many terms in the world of SaaS security, it’s hard to keep track of them all. Each solution offers a different - and often fragmented and insufficient - approach to tackling the growing challenge of SaaS security.

SaaS data security continues to pose significant risks to businesses. Just look at the recent incidents involving the U.S. Department of Defense and Disney - both real-world examples of what can happen if these issues are not properly addressed.

The problem? Many solutions are being built without a focus on granularity, scalability, or true effectiveness in addressing these challenges.

This article takes a deep dive into the hurdles organizations face when managing SaaS security, with a particular focus on Google Workspace security, and examines how the above-mentioned categories fail to properly solve the problem.

CASB

CASBs are the most commonly used solution today for addressing SaaS security. If you're unfamiliar with what a CASB is, check out our blog, What is a CASB?, for a deeper explanation. 

Initially designed as intermediaries between users and cloud services, CASBs have evolved into two main forms: inline and API-based solutions. However, even with the development of "API-CASBs," there are still significant gaps in their ability to manage SaaS data security effectively.

CASB Limitations:

• Detection Accuracy: CASBs face challenges in integrating business context with SaaS data actions. Additionally, as we’ll discuss later, their architecture frequently leads to data integrity issues.
  
  
• Detection Latency: Inline solutions are complex, and many "API-CASBs" use a pull-based architecture, meaning they call SaaS applications every few hours. This results in gaps in visibility and remediation. A "push-based" approach, however, offers near real-time visibility and faster reaction times.
  
  
• End-User Engagement: CASBs lack the ability to engage users effectively with context-driven policies, which helps educate users on how to share data securely.
  
  
• Total Cost of Ownership: Long implementation cycles, a lack of bulk remediation, the need for multiple resources to support deployment.

DLP (Data Loss Prevention)

DLP tools aim to prevent unauthorized access or transmission of sensitive data within an organization. They span on-prem, cloud, and SaaS environments, and typically include data classification. While traditional DLP tools have their merits, they aren’t built to handle the scale and flexibility required for SaaS applications.

DLP Challenges for SaaS:

• Dynamic Access Controls: Legacy DLP solutions are static, typically focusing on predefined patterns like SSNs or credit card numbers. In contrast, solutions such as DoControl provide flexible, user-context-driven policies.
  
  
• Native SaaS Integrations: Traditional DLP tools often require complex setups and aren't optimized for cloud-based data, especially when accessed from various devices and locations (BYOD).
  
  
• Granular, Risk-Based Policies: Legacy DLPs tend to rely on simple, binary rules - either allowing or blocking data, which can drastically hinder business productivity.
  
  
• Historical Remediation at Scale: Even if DLP workflows are successfully configured, it’s nearly impossible to retroactively remediate historical data exposure at scale, such as identifying all Google Drive assets shared with @gmail.com accounts and remediating access within a click of a button.
  

SSPM (SaaS Security Posture Management)

SSPM is an emerging market that began in 2020, focused primarily on addressing misconfigurations in SaaS applications. The category is still defining itself, but the traditional SSPM solutions often are missing a huge piece of the puzzle - being able to know and control WHO has access to your data. 

SSPM Limitations:

• No Historical Remediation: While misconfigurations are highlighted, there's no capability to remediate existing exposures. Knowing that assets are shared publicly doesn’t help if you can't fix the issue at scale quickly.
  
  
• Lack of Workflow-Based Remediation: These solutions don't include automated remediation workflows.
  
  
• No Granularity: SSPMs often fail to provide contextual information from identity providers (IdP) or HRIS systems, meaning the exposure they surface is impossible to decipher what is risky or not.
  

Enter DoControl: A True SSPM Solution

DoControl combines the capabilities of API-CASBs, DLP solutions, and SSPMs, expanding and refining them to offer a comprehensive SaaS security solution. Our event-based architecture provides near real-time visibility and remediation, designed to scale with your business as it tackles SaaS data security.

Our platform addresses the gaps left by traditional solutions, covering everything from misconfigurations to data security, DLP, identity threats, and more. With DoControl, you gain a truly comprehensive SSPM solution.

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Key Capabilities of DoControl:

• Data Access Governance: Discover all your SaaS data, classify risk, and remediate at scale with our highly efficient, event-based architecture, integrated with HRIS and IdP tools for enhanced context.
  
  
• Shadow Apps Discovery and Remediation: Identify, risk score, and remediate third-party applications in your environment.
  
  
• Data Loss Prevention: Utilize NLP for real-time data discovery and classification, protecting a wide range of data types. Combine this with contextual user data from HRIS and IdP tools, and engage end-users effectively.
  
  
• Identity Threat Detection and Response: Using HRIS and IdP integrations, we risk-score each user based on their behavior and benchmark it against the department. Understand who is accessing or sharing data in ways that deviate from their usual patterns.
  
  
• Misconfigurations: Ensure compliance with industry standards like CIS and SOC II by mapping your SaaS application configurations and continuously monitoring for misconfigurations.‍

DoControl’s comprehensive approach ensures organizations benefit from enhanced security, governance, and compliance capabilities. With automated controls, workflows, visibility, and remediation, DoControl empowers businesses to confidently protect their SaaS environments.

Want to Learn More?‍

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