Blue Coat stresses the importance of Cloud security

Advanced Web security company, Blue Coat, has introduced a set of Cloud security capabilities and services backed by a broad Cloud security industry ecosystem.

With this new Cloud security eco-system, it aims to rapidly integrate key CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) innovations gained from its recent acquisition of Elastica, resulting in a global security platform that provides visibility, control and data-level security across Cloud, on premise and hybrid Cloud environments.

As components of this platform, it introduced new solutions that include the integration of the Elastica Audit subscription service with AppFeed; a full suite of security and governance controls for Microsoft Office 365; and a new Blue Coat Cloud Ready partner program.

The Cloud Ready partner program creates an open framework to allow a select set of security vendors and Security-as-a-Service companies to integrate and certify their services and Cloud applications directly into the Blue Coat Security Platform.

Charter members of the Blue Coat Cloud Ready Partner Program are: AirWatch, AlienVault, Box, Centrify, Dropbox, E8 Security, Exabeam, Fortscale, Gemalto, HP, Oracle, Seculert, Splunk and Symantec.

In addition, it is designed to provide customers a method to integrate and adopt new services into a broader security framework for the Cloud Generation, limiting the risk of Cloud adoption and Shadow IT.

Blue Coat president and chief operating officer, Michael Fey, said this level of integration allows customers ease of transition to the Cloud while maintaining critical visibility and control between users and applications.

“The new era of Cloud usage brings with it a host of benefits, but can also be a significant challenge for security teams, as the expansion of the attack surface grows along the three dimensions of devices, networks and applications.

“We help enterprises safely transition to the Cloud, reestablishing control and visibility to the entire IT infrastructure,” Fey said.

He added that together with Blue Coat and certified Cloud Ready partner solutions, customers will be able to leverage their established security services, as well as tie together new technologies into the Blue Coat Cloud security platform.

Blue Coat A/NZ chief information security officer, Damien Manuel, said the move marks the company’s increasing focus on Cloud security. He addressed the importance of it, adding that the launch of the government's national cyber security strategy will shed more light on it.

“The launch of the government's national cyber security strategy is to be welcomed. It is a much needed update to the policy and is sure to help make the government, business and individual Australians more resilient to cyber-attacks.

“The way companies use IT has changed considerably since the previous cyber security strategy was launched back in 2009. Cloud computing is now an integral part of many businesses, encrypted traffic is the standard, and more data is stored and shared than ever before. The threat landscape is rapidly changing and the stakes are even higher than a few years ago,” he said.

Manuel mentioned the public sector and the private sector needs to work together to toughen Australia's networks and systems.

“Advice for businesses to help them improve their security is also welcomed. Further research and development in cyber security is always necessary to stay a step ahead of cyber criminals and other malicious actors.

“A focus on building the security skills base in Australia is also to be welcomed. Whatever the outcomes of the strategy, it is positive that the government is taking the cyber threat to Australia seriously and putting forward practical steps to promote security,” he added.