Mimecast has announced the release of added application visibility and control capabilities to its Mimecast Web Security service.
Application Visibility and Control will help Mimecast customers overcome the challenge of Shadow IT by uncovering cloud app usage within their organisations and providing the necessary tools to control access.
These new capabilities strengthen overall cyber resilience through more pervasive protection that extends beyond an organisation’s perimeter.
Additionally, Application Visibility and Control helps reduce security, data and compliance risks by more effectively managing where data and intellectual property is held in the cloud.
In today’s digital age, most employees are reliant on cloud-based apps to increase productivity and collaborate more efficiently. The internet has made access to these tools almost instantaneous.
Some reports cite that the average enterprise uses more than 1 400 cloud services, with the average employee using 36 apps at work. Often these apps aren’t sanctioned by IT and use of these “unapproved” apps can create risks to data security, external regulations and organisational mandates.
Mimecast’s latest State of Email Security Report found that 57% of South African organisations reported that they had been victim of an attack where malicious activity spread from one infected user to other employees.
By adding Application Visibility and Control to Mimecast Web Security, Mimecast is enabling customers to have full visibility of what apps are being used, by whom and how often. IT can then apply policies to block, allow and monitor all apps being used – regardless of how they are being accessed – mobile or PC browser.
Application Visibility and Control also helps customers enforce corporate policies to use specific file sharing services while blocking others. These new controls reduce risks while potentially saving cost incurred by individuals paying for and expensing access to non-sanctioned sharing services.
“There are many services available right at our fingertips to help employees be more productive, communicate and collaborate with colleagues, vendors and partners across the globe, but these benefits don’t come without risk – blind spots IT isn’t aware of,” says Jamie Fernandes, senior director of product management at Mimecast.
“This is a challenge for organisations regardless of size or industry. This new standard capability within Mimecast Web Security will help to give the reins back to IT so they can proactively manage cloud app use across the organisation to improve their cyber resilience posture, using the same single platform and console they use to secure email and web access.”
“Shadow IT continues to be a challenge for many IT and security teams as cloud app adoption grows and signing up to new services is simpler than ever,” says Scott Crawford, research vice-president: security at 451 Research.
“Visibility into what apps are being used by employees is an important step in being able to understand and control this problem, with insight into DNS activity making a significant contribution to seeing and categorising all requests.
“These capabilities help customers better monitor and approve apps or block unsanctioned apps across devices being used by employees, to help reduce the security, data and compliance risks that gaps in defence can create.”