What is a CASB and what functions does it provide?

• A. A firewall feature that inspects traffic
• B. Cloud Access Security Broker; provides visibility, data security (DLP), threat protection, and access controls for sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud apps.
• C. A virtualization management tool
• D. An antivirus for-cloud storage

Answer: (B)

A Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) is a security control placed between users and cloud services to enforce security policies for cloud usage. It provides visibility into which cloud apps are being used (including shadow IT), and what data moves through them. It delivers data security through data loss prevention and related protections, threat protection to detect abnormal behavior or malware, and access controls to govern who can access which cloud apps and from which devices or locations. It supports both sanctioned apps and unsanctioned ones, enabling policy enforcement, risk mitigation, and auditing across SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS usage. In short, a CASB helps organizations discover cloud activity, protect sensitive data, detect and respond to threats, and control access to cloud services.