Skyfence Secures Access to Cloud Apps for Mobile Device Users

Skyfence, an Imperva company that specializes in the automated visibility and control over cloud apps, announced the latest version of its Skyfence Cloud Gateway, which addresses mobile access blindspots, provides risk assessment and remediation, and provides data privacy for information stored within sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud apps.
The new capabilities allow IT organizations to support mobile cloud app usage while providing IT organizations the visibility and control they need to demonstrate compliance with corporate security policies and regulatory mandates.
The latest Skyfence Cloud Gateway helps organizations distinguish and apply unique policies for managed and unmanaged mobile devices, supporting mobile workers accessing both from native mobile apps and mobile browsers.
New capabilities being introduced include cloud security for mobile access, an advanced risk management dashboard and data privacy protection through geo-fencing.
“Virtually all our customers, including those in banking, airline, technology industries have a large percentage of their workforce that doesn’t work in a traditional office environment,” Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing for Skyfence, told eWEEK. “At the same time, these employees must collaborate to get their job done and support customers, so communication and access to information is vital. Of course, even the corporate workers want ‘anywhere, anytime’ access whether it’s to their Office 365 set of services or ‘shadow IT’ apps such as Dropbox. For many users, mobile is becoming their primary means of accessing apps and data.”
For seamless user monitoring and policy enforcement on cloud apps accessed from mobile devices, Skyfence now supports both browser and native app access to a variety of software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps, which helps users securely access their cloud apps from any device, while allowing IT to maintain usage control standards and detect behavior-based anomalies.
Skyfence automatically directs browsers and mobile applications through the Skyfence proxy using an Android app and iOS profile for handhelds and tablets.
To enable streamlined risk management, Skyfence has added an IT executive level reporting dashboard that provides global visibility into trends and changes in an organization’s cloud usage and security posture.
“The ability to profile and learn user behavior within apps and detect anomalies that could indicate credentials have been stolen is an important capability,” Cabri said. “For example, a certain employee who is always in California but now is detected to be logging in from Eastern Europe may be one factor that indicates the credentials were compromised.”
Administrators can access metrics and generate reports that compare actual cloud app usage, number of users, location of stored data and more, against pre-established risk thresholds and baselines.
The dashboard also features a range of drill-down parameters for analysis of each app and enables security professionals to remediate risks.
From the dashboard, high-risk apps or user actions can be blocked using a firewall, a proxy or the Skyfence gateway.
Skyfence also provides visibility and control over where confidential or proprietary data is stored in the cloud.
Organizations with operations in regions that are governed by data privacy laws or other regulations can use the company’s cloud gateway to address those requirements by setting geo-fencing policies that specify where data can reside and how it can be used based on service destination and geographic location.
“According to the EU data privacy laws personal data may only be transferred to a county that provides an adequate level of protection,” Cabri noted. “Many cloud applications with a global presence don’t provide control over where corporate data is transferred. Skyfence can enforce location-based policies to ensure that data will not be sent to unauthorized countries.”