Join us at Netskope’s SASE Summit, coming to a city near you! Register now.

  • Security Service Edge Products

    Protect against advanced and cloud-enabled threats and safeguard data across all vectors.

  • Borderless SD-WAN

    Confidently provide secure, high-performance access to every remote user, device, site, and cloud.

  • Platform

    Unrivaled visibility and real-time data and threat protection on the world's largest security private cloud.

The platform of the future is Netskope

Intelligent Security Service Edge (SSE), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Cloud Firewall, Next Generation Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Private Access for ZTNA built natively into a single solution to help every business on its journey to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture.

Go to Products Overview
Netskope video
Borderless SD-WAN: Ushering in the New Era of Borderless Enterprise

Netskope Borderless SD-WAN offers an architecture that converges zero trust principles and assured application performance to provide unprecedented secure, high-performance connectivity for every site, cloud, remote user, and IoT device.

Read the article
Borderless SD-WAN
Netskope delivers a modern cloud security stack, with unified capabilities for data and threat protection, plus secure private access.

Explore our platform
Birds eye view metropolitan city
Make the move to market-leading cloud security services with minimal latency and high reliability.

Learn about NewEdge
Lighted highway through mountainside switchbacks
Safely enable the use of generative AI applications with application access control, real-time user coaching, and best-in-class data protection.

Learn how we secure generative AI use
Safely Enable ChatGPT and Generative AI
Zero trust solutions for SSE and SASE deployments

Learn about Zero Trust
Boat driving through open sea
Netskope enables a safe, cloud-smart, and fast journey to adopt cloud services, apps, and public cloud infrastructure.

Learn about Industry Solutions
Wind turbines along cliffside
  • Our Customers

    Netskope serves more than 2,000 customers worldwide including more than 25 of the Fortune 100

  • Customer Solutions

    We are here for you and with you every step of the way, ensuring your success with Netskope.

  • Training and Certification

    Netskope training will help you become a cloud security expert.

We help our customers to be Ready for Anything

See our Customers
Woman smiling with glasses looking out window
Netskope’s talented and experienced Professional Services team provides a prescriptive approach to your successful implementation.

Learn about Professional Services
Netskope Professional Services
Secure your digital transformation journey and make the most of your cloud, web, and private applications with Netskope training.

Learn about Training and Certifications
Group of young professionals working
  • Resources

    Learn more about how Netskope can help you secure your journey to the cloud.

  • Blog

    Learn how Netskope enables security and networking transformation through security service edge (SSE).

  • Events & Workshops

    Stay ahead of the latest security trends and connect with your peers.

  • Security Defined

    Everything you need to know in our cybersecurity encyclopedia.

Security Visionaries Podcast

Bonus Episode 2: The Magic Quadrant for SSE and Getting SASE Right
Mike and Steve discuss the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge (SSE), Netskope’s positioning, and how the current economic climate will impact the SASE journey.

Play the podcast
Bonus Episode 2: The Magic Quadrant for SSE and Getting SASE Right
Latest Blogs

How Netskope can enable the Zero Trust and SASE journey through security service edge (SSE) capabilities.

Read the blog
Sunrise and cloudy sky
Netskope AWS Immersion Day World Tour 2023

Netskope has developed a variety of hands-on labs, workshops, in-depth webinars and demos to educate and assist AWS customers in the usage and deployment of Netskope products.

Learn about AWS Immersion Day
AWS Partner
What is Security Service Edge?

Explore the security side of SASE, the future of network and protection in the cloud.

Learn about Security Service Edge
Four-way roundabout
  • Company

    We help you stay ahead of cloud, data, and network security challenges.

  • Why Netskope

    Cloud transformation and work from anywhere have changed how security needs to work.

  • Leadership

    Our leadership team is fiercely committed to doing everything it takes to make our customers successful.

  • Partners

    We partner with security leaders to help you secure your journey to the cloud.

Netskope enables the future of work.

Find out more
Curvy road through wooded area
Highest in Execution. Furthest in Vision.

Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.

Get the report
Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.
Thinkers, builders, dreamers, innovators. Together, we deliver cutting-edge cloud security solutions to help our customers protect their data and people.

Meet our team
Group of hikers scaling a snowy mountain
Netskope’s partner-centric go-to-market strategy enables our partners to maximize their growth and profitability while transforming enterprise security.

Learn about Netskope Partners
Group of diverse young professionals smiling

5 tips for using a CASB to safely enable social media in your business

Jul 25 2016
Tags
CASB
Cloud Best Practices
Cloud Security
Tools and Tips

From Facebook’s 1.65 billion monthly active users to Twitter’s rise as a mainstream broadcast media outlet, social media continues to experience rapid and wide adoption from users around the globe. For the enterprise, social media presents both opportunities and challenges. The opportunity is primarily centered around leveraging social to make your employees more collaborative and productive at their job, not to mention the many benefits to the business. If you aren’t interacting with your customers via social media, there is a good chance that your competitors are.

Even with all the upside, there are a number of challenges that are impacting the adoption of social media in the enterprise. First, social media promotes transparency and some businesses are not ready to change their culture overnight. The other challenge is the risk associated with sensitive data leaking via social media. What if someone posts or shares something they are not supposed to? What would be the impact to our company if intellectual property was leaked, customer data exposed, or out-of-compliance activities took place? Compliance is a real issue whether it is FINRA compliance for financial firms, PCI for retail, or protected health information (PHI) that is connected to HIPAA compliance. Social media makes it very easy to share anything and that anything could be cause for concern depending on the scope of your business.

The question is, do you embrace social media in your place of business and reap all the benefits or do you block social media altogether? This is the catch-22 as you ultimately need to make the decision between using social or being safe. What if you could enable the use of social media in your business, but do it safely? I want to share with you how a cloud access security broker (CASB) such as Netskope can let you have your cake and eat it too. Here are 5 tips.

Tip #1 Use a scalpel, not a sledgehammer

Your first inclination might be to just outright block social media by using your perimeter security device. Instead, use a CASB that can identify and block risky activities taking place in real-time. A risky activity could be someone from the hospital staff posting PHI to a social media app of their choice. Focusing on the risky activity instead of being forced to block the app outright means that everyone can use the app safely.

Tip #2 Implement a category-level policy

There are the mainstream social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Snapchat and then there are the dozens or potentially hundreds of social media apps that could be in use by users. In fact, a recent Netskope Cloud Report found that an enterprise has 23 social media apps in use on average. Make sure that your CASB supports a category-level policy that can administered to cover all social media apps. The last thing you want to do is create and manage dozens of policies individually.

Tip #3 Don’t be blind. Cover all ways social is being used

There are two primary ways that users interact with social media apps. First is the browser from their Mac to PC and the other way is from an app on their iOS or Android device. Make sure that your CASB can inspect social media usage involving both browsers and mobile apps. If you can’t cover mobile apps then you are leaving yourself vulnerable.

Tip #4 Incorporate advanced DLP into your policy

This is tied to the scalpel approach covered in tip #1. The key here is that you need to be able to inspect not only attachments and text that is part of a social media post or share, but you need to do it in a smart way so you don’t end up with a ton of false positives and end of blocking everything. The example I like to use is a financial services company that wanted to safely enable social media, but at the same time be FINRA compliant. This involved looking for keywords such as “guarantee” or “recommend” combined with public company names and stock symbols. This requires that your CASB have an advanced cloud DLP solution with AND/OR rules, custom keyword dictionaries, proximity, and other key features. You can learn more about this use case by watching this demo video.

Tip #5 Coach users

The final tip is focused on end user experience and behavior modification. A successful enterprise social media strategy involves training users to use their best judgement. This traditionally involves training classes, email reminders, and even getting users to sign agreements. You can take this a step further by using a CASB to implement real-time coaching and have custom messages pop up when the user performs an out-of-compliant action. When they attempt to do something risky, warn them in real-time and coach them to do the right thing.

Speaking of social media, I would love to connect with you on Twitter. You can follow me @bobegilbert

author image
Bob Gilbert
Bob Gilbert heads up the product marketing efforts at Netskope, a market-leading cloud security company. Bob is a prolific speaker and product demonstrator, reaching live audiences in more than 45 countries over the past decade.