Ever watched an episode of Suits, where hushed conversations take place in the file room? File room – now there’s a term you don’t hear much these days. Think client data, written on paper, kept in sealed files and stored in a locked room. Let’s face it, it would take some serious effort to steal that data and I can only imagine the grief involved in converting it to sell on the dark web. So why change what’s not broke? Here’s why – modern business environments place higher demands on data to be more collaborative and to be accessible from anywhere, at any time and from any device.

Client data is an essential business asset deserving of protection. Personally identifiable information or ‘PII’ is an all too common target for hackers who download databases to sell on the dark web or for rogue employees who when leaving your organisation take data to use in competitive settings. With this threat top of mind, it’s easy to start making trade-offs around access, security and user experience. It may seem appealing to completely block database downloads, but this will ultimately limit your ability to grow as a business.

The search for seamless, friction-less data security

A data security solution should be seamless and friction-less, otherwise frustrated end users will try to circumvent the process. This is where Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) can help. A CASB monitors data traffic between SaaS applications such as Office 365, Google Docs, Salesforce, Xero and Dropbox, providing full visibility of data flows between employee phones, laptops and cloud applications. Insight empowers the effective creation of policies for governing data access. For more understanding of the scenarios in which a CASB can be useful, read here https://www.nspsecurity.co.nz/cloud-app-security