Cloud Access Security Broker evaluation questionnaire

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All 13 vendors in this category.

• baselineRFIWhat deployment modes does the CASB support — API-based (out-of-band, retroactive visibility) versus inline/proxy (forward or reverse proxy, real-time control) — and which sanctioned/unsanctioned apps are covered by each mode?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  API-mode and inline-mode CASB have very different real-time enforcement capability; a vendor should be explicit about which apps get real-time inline control versus after-the-fact API-based visibility only.

• baselineRFPDescribe shadow IT discovery methodology (network/proxy log analysis, endpoint agent, or both) and quantify the number of previously-unknown cloud apps typically discovered in a new deployment with a customer reference.weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Look for a concrete discovered-app-count figure from a real deployment; 'comprehensive shadow IT visibility' without a number is a marketing claim, not evidence.

• baselineRFIHow does the platform enforce DLP policies specifically within sanctioned SaaS apps (e.g., blocking sensitive file sharing in Google Drive or Slack) — is this real-time inline blocking or after-the-fact detection and alerting only?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Real-time inline blocking prevents the exposure; after-the-fact detection only informs the team once data has already left, which is a materially weaker protection posture.

• baselineRFIWhat is the latency overhead added to sanctioned SaaS app traffic for users when the CASB is deployed inline, and is this measured under realistic production load or lab-only conditions?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Ask for a real measured latency figure under production load; inline security tools that add unmeasured, unbounded latency create real user-experience friction that drives shadow-IT workarounds.

• baselineRFPDetail adaptive access control capability — can access policy vary by device posture, location, or risk score (e.g., block download on an unmanaged device, allow on a managed one) rather than a single all-or-nothing app-level policy?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Context-aware, adaptive policy (varying by device/location/risk) is materially more useful than a blunt allow/block toggle per app; ask for specific examples of policy conditions supported.

• baselineRFIHow does the CASB integrate with existing identity (SSO/IdP) and endpoint (EDR/MDM) tooling to inform its risk and policy decisions, versus operating as an isolated data source with no context from the rest of the security stack?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Integration with identity and endpoint context (not operating in isolation) allows genuinely risk-adaptive policy; a CASB with no such integration is limited to blunt, context-free rules.

• baselineRFPExplain coverage for unmanaged/BYOD devices accessing sanctioned SaaS apps — what visibility and control exists when the device itself has no agent installed, and what is the resulting coverage gap compared to managed devices?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Reverse-proxy CASB modes can offer some agentless control on unmanaged devices; the vendor should candidly describe what's simply not achievable without an agent rather than implying full parity.

• baselineRFIWhat is the false-positive rate for DLP policy violations in sanctioned apps, and what tuning/exception workflow exists for legitimate business use cases that would otherwise trigger a block?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  A vendor unable to state an approximate false-positive rate likely hasn't measured production accuracy; a fast, low-friction exception workflow matters since DLP false positives directly block real business activity.

• baselineRFIWhat is the pricing model — per user, per sanctioned app, or a flat enterprise tier — and how does cost scale as shadow-IT discovery inherently reveals more apps requiring coverage than initially estimated?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Same tension as other discovery-driven categories: successful shadow-IT discovery inherently increases the counted app population — ask explicitly how pricing handles a large post-onboarding jump in discovered apps.

• baselineRFPDescribe incident-response capability for a confirmed compromised SaaS account discovered via CASB visibility — can the platform quickly assess what data was accessed through that account, and what is a customer-referenced example?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Strong answers describe a fast, specific forensic capability for a confirmed compromise, not just preventive posture monitoring.

• baselineRFIWhat compliance-evidence generation exists from CASB activity (evidence that cloud-access controls were active and enforced, for a SOC 2 or similar audit), and is this a built-in exportable report or something the customer must assemble manually?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Native compliance-evidence generation is materially more valuable than raw activity logs requiring manual compilation for every audit cycle.

• baselineRFPDetail historical trend reporting on shadow-IT discovery and sanctioned-app-adoption trends over time, suitable for demonstrating program maturity to leadership.weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Trend-over-time reporting is a distinct capability from a real-time app-inventory dashboard — confirm this exists as a maintained, exportable report.

• baselineRFIHow does this platform relate to the customer's existing SSPM tooling — is CASB a genuinely distinct, access-focused complementary layer, or does it substantially duplicate SaaS posture/governance capability an SSPM platform already provides?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  This is a real, common buyer question given the functional overlap with SSPM's own SaaS-focused capabilities — a vendor should give an honest answer about the boundary and complementarity.

• baselineRFPWho within the organization gets access to CASB user-activity data, and is there role-based access control given that this data reveals detailed individual employee cloud-application usage patterns?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Individual employee cloud-usage data is sensitive from both a security and employee-privacy perspective — role-based access control over this specific data is an often-overlooked consideration.

• baselineRFIHow consistent is CASB coverage and policy enforcement across a global, multi-region workforce — are inline proxy points geographically distributed to avoid adding significant latency for remote regions, or is there a single central point of enforcement?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  A single central enforcement point can add real, region-dependent latency for a geographically distributed workforce — ask for a specific answer on geographic distribution of enforcement infrastructure.

• baselineRFIWhat is a customer-referenced onboarding timeline from contract signature to the platform providing genuinely comprehensive coverage across an existing, large SaaS footprint with significant shadow-IT sprawl already present?weight 3
  Answer key — what a strong answer shows

  Strong answers give a concrete, customer-validated timeline for a realistic existing-sprawl scenario (not a small greenfield deployment), and are honest about the customer-side effort required.

• baselineRFPThe proposed cloud computing solution shall be configured, deployed, and managed to meet security, privacy, legal, ethical and compliance requirements; bidder to enable the financial institution in performing audit/review of IT controls of the CSP as and when required.weight 3
• baselineRFPVendor platform should have capability to collect logs from most standard platforms (Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, Firewall, network and other security devices), standard network/security devices, databases, web servers, cloud services (AWS/Azure), SaaS solutions, and O365.weight 3
• baselineRFPZero Trust Phase 1 planning: Contractor shall develop technical requirements/implementation plans for Defender for Servers & Cloud Apps (CASB) integration, migration from traditional VPNs to a SASE model, and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) with Conditional Access — engineering automated response playbooks and identity-centric access policies.weight 3
• baselineRFPSolution should integrate cloud-hosted platforms into the SIEM (event and network flow data) and perform deep packet forensics analysis on packets integrated from a packet analysis solution; provide connectors for the full device inventory in Annexure 1 with custom parser coding at no additional fee.weight 3

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