'Box Shield' Brings New Security Controls

Box today released a new set of security controls called Box Shield that detects when data hosted by the cloud-based service is accidentally shared or misused as it travels inside and outside an organization.

The idea is to better secure cloud-based content as more businesses move data and operations to the cloud. Many employees use Box to store information and collaborate on projects. Box's goal is not to change the way people around the world use it, says chief product officer Jeetu Patel. It's to simplify security without slowing processes or interrupting employees' jobs.

"With Box Shield, enterprises will receive intelligence alerts and unlock insights into their content security with new capabilities built natively in Box, enabling them to deploy simple, effective controls and act on potential issues in minutes," Patel says of the new tools, which currently are in private beta.

Organizations can automatically or manually label files and folders and then create access policies based on those labels that adhere to one or more security controls. For example, "shared link restriction" dictates who can access shared links and whether links can be shared outside the business. "External collaborator restriction" limits external access to approved domains, or blocks it based on the content. "Download restriction" restricts the downloads of files or folders across specific applications, and "application restriction" limits which third-party and custom apps can download sensitive content from Box.

Box Shield aims to strike the delicate balance between security and user experience. Label-based controls let admins protect content from unauthorized access or sharing without interfering with employees using it.

Admins can also stay in the loop on security alerts. Box Shield sends notifications when it detects data access from suspicious locations, unusual downloads that may signify theft, or a potentially compromised account based on a rapid and unlikely change in employee location. If someone accesses a file from London and sends it from Singapore an hour later, for example, it's likely their account was compromised.

The tool integrates with several security products so contextual alerts from Box Shield can be integrated with SIEM products from Sumo Logic, AT&T Cybersecurity, and IBM, as well as cloud access security broker platforms from Symantec, McAfee, Palo Alto Networks, and Netskope.

Box Shield will be generally available in the fall.