Understanding the Cloud App Security Service

Cloud App Security (CAS), a Microsoft hosted service, is designed to help customers discover how third-party cloud applications are being used within their business and potentially control application usage. However, CAS is not stand-alone. CAS discovery requires a compatible infrastructure, and additional technologies such as Azure Information Protection might be required for an organization to act on the insights CAS delivers.

Cloud App Security Basics

CAS, known formally as Microsoft Cloud App Security, fits in a category of services called cloud access security brokers (CASB) that discover and manage access and use of cloud-based applications.

There are three phases to the deployment and use of CAS:

• Discovery, where CAS finds cloud applications that are in use, and where possible, manages them
• Information protection, where CAS examines the options for protecting documents before they are copied into controlled cloud applications
• Threat detection, where CAS observes user