McAfee extends security capabilities to counter cloud migration threats
Security software company McAfee said it is extending its cloud security platform to consistently protect Microsoft Azure.
McAfee’s cloud security portfolio encompasses McAfee Skyhigh Security Cloud, McAfee Virtual Network Security Platform (vNSP) and McAfee Cloud Workload Security (McAfee CWS). McAfee Skyhigh Security Cloud for Azure is also available. McAfee vNSP’s support of Azure customers will be available by the end of this month, according to the company.
McAfee reports these new offerings will enable organizations to: audit security configuration settings of Microsoft Azure against best practices; capture the complete audit trail of user and administrator activity; use data science and machine learning to detect insider threats; remove malware from traffic; and stop unauthorized sensitive data from being stored in Azure storage services.
The announcement marks the first joint security solution delivered by McAfee and Skyhigh Networks since the former company acquired the latter company last November. Skyhigh Networks was founded in 2011 as a CASB technology vendor, specializing in cloud security for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). McAfee said it intended to use Skyhigh’s technology as the basis of its new cloud business unit through the acquisition.
CASB has become a valued form of security as organizations migrate from data centers to the cloud. Workloads moving to the cloud create new threat vectors. CASBs can help ensure network traffic between on-premises devices and the cloud abides by a company’s security policies. Research firm Gartner projects by 2020, 60% of large enterprises will use a CASB to govern cloud services, up from less than 10% today.
“Moving applications, data and workloads to the cloud exposes enterprises to new threats and risks,” said Rajiv Gupta, senior vice president of the cloud security business unit, McAfee, in a statement. “At the same time, the adoption of cloud allows organizations to transform their business. This is why we are on a mission to make cloud the most secure environment for business. The introduction of McAfee Cloud Security Platform for Microsoft Azure is an important step to fulfilling this mission for our customers.”
