Welcome to the MCAS Ninja Blog Series!
Matt Soseman, Senior Security Architect, One Commercial Partner @ Microsoft Background: Take a step back in time with me and think about what technology was like when you entered the workforce. For me, when I started ~20 years ago, I was accessing corporate apps that were in my company owned datacenter, behind their firewall – from a locked down desktop computer in the corporate office building. Fast forward 20 years, and I am accessing business apps and data that are not in my company’s datacenter nor behind their firewall, from a smartphone/tablet/laptop (that the company does not manage), from locations other than the company’s office. Wow, times have changed. The Problem: As the way we do business has evolved over the last 20 years, so have our end-user’s expectations of IT services; they expect to get their job done at anytime, anywhere and on any device. One trend that is growing rapidly is the use of Software as a Service (SaaS) where users are storing corporate owned data and consuming it from a variety of public apps (that are not controlled by the user’s IT department) be it cloud storage, online meetings, collaboration, accounting, CRM more. This drastically increases the organizations cyber security risk and may negatively impact their compliance posture if not managed properly. The Solution: This is where a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) can help save the day. CASBs help enable you to discover what SaaS apps are in use, provide security and governance for those apps, and enforce policies to maintain your security and compliance posture. They are designed specifically for cloud-based applications and with the right design and configuration strategy, can provide the security/compliance IT requires and the flexibility the end users are expecting. A Cloud Access Security Broker is an amazing tool for any IT professional to add to their toolbelt in mitigating today’s modern threats and risks. This tool can contain many different moving parts from firewall and desktop integration, to connecting to SaaS apps, configuring, and deploying policy, tuning alerts, identity controls, data governance, data loss prevention, and more. As a result, due to the complexity of a CASB, they can be intimidating and sometimes too complex to know where or even how to get started. Welcome to the CASB Ninja Blog Series! I want to arm you with the knowledge you need to be successful with a CASB and ultimately be a CASB ninja to your organization! I will be sharing my knowledge and experience with you in a new blog series called MCAS Ninja. In the blogs we will discuss how the Microsoft CASB, Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS), can be used across the following 5 topic areas: Shadow IT Discovery & Control Information Protection Threat Protection Real-time Access Management Cloud Security Posture Management We will dive deep into use cases, architecture design, implementation and configuration best practices, operations, and more. I am excited to have you on this journey and to contribute to your success! I am also excited to help you better understand how MCAS integrates with the rest of the Microsoft security portfolio: The Journey Begins: To kick off the series, I will start with going deeper into the business justification of why a CASB is needed, the opportunity for IT and the end-user, business outcomes, and how a CASB delivers its capabilities. Armed with this knowledge, the next stop in your journey will be starting with discovering and mitigating shadow IT in your organization. Keep an eye out for both posts in the coming weeks! (I will update this post you are reading with the links once they become available but be sure to subscribe so you can be notified when they are live.) Attention Microsoft Partners! My role at Microsoft is to enable our partners to develop and deliver world-class enterprise grade security solutions using Microsoft Security and Compliance technology to their clients. Building that foundation starts with a CASB and managing cloud security posture. Throughout this blog series, I will also be diving into partner specific topics (such as ideas for managed services, reporting dashboards, playbooks, and more) that you can use to help your clients be successful with Microsoft Cloud App Security. I am honored to have you on this journey with me, see you soon! --Matt Soseman http://aka.ms/SosemanTV P.S. Stay up to date on all the MCAS Ninja training at http://aka.ms/MCASNinjaEU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud | Frequently Asked Questions
On May 6, 2021, we announced a new pledge for the European Union. If you are a commercial or public sector customer in the EU, we will go beyond our existing data residency commitments and enable you to process and store all your data in the EU. In other words, we will not need to move your data outside the EU. This commitment will apply across all of Microsoft’s main cloud services—Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365. We are beginning work immediately on this added step, and we will complete by the end of next year the implementation of all engineering work needed to execute on it. We’re calling this plan the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud. The new step we’re taking builds on our already strong portfolio of solutions and commitments that protect our customers’ data, and we hope today’s update is another step toward responding to customers who want even greater data residency commitments. We will continue to consult with customers and regulators about this plan in the coming months and move forward in a way that is responsive to their feedback.MCAS Ninja: What’s a CASB and Why Do I Need One?
SaaS apps are mission critical components to successful operations for an organization and provides the organization with the modern technology to meet business needs, without a large infrastructure investment. However, SaaS needs to be trusted by the IT department and be carefully considered as part of a security and compliance strategy.
RSS feeds to security blogs?
Hello, After the update of blogs here i no longer see any RSS feeds or links. Where can those RSS feed be found now? It was the only newsfeed where blogs could be aggregated. perhaps im just blind :) but i cant find the new RSS feeds. Thank you! Previously (before this weeks update) the links to those RSS feed was as follows: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=MicrosoftSecurityandCompliance https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=Identity https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=CoreInfrastructureandSecurityBlog https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=AzureNetworkSecurityBlog https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=IdentityStandards https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=MicrosoftThreatProtectionBlog https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=MicrosoftDefenderCloudBlog https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=MicrosoftDefenderATPBlog https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=MicrosoftDefenderIoTBlog https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=DefenderExternalAttackSurfaceMgmtBlog https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=Vulnerability-Management https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=DefenderThreatIntelligence https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=MicrosoftSecurityExperts https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=Microsoft-Security-Baselines https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=MicrosoftSentinelBlog https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/gxcuf89792/rss/board?board.id=MicrosoftDefenderforOffice365BlogNavigating the New Frontier: Information Security in the Era of M365 Copilot
Explore the intersection of AI and security in our latest feature, where Microsoft Purview meets M365 Copilot. Dive into the critical role of sensitivity labels, advanced data classification, and encryption in shaping a secure digital workspace. Gain expert insights from industry professionals and discover practical strategies for balancing innovative AI tools with rigorous security protocols.
