CASB vs. SSPM: Key Differences and When to Use Each

The cloud security tool landscape has rapidly grown in the past 10 years. With many types of solutions available and emerging on the market, it’s often difficult to keep track of all the capabilities. This article explores the differences between CASB vs. SSPM tools.

What is CASB

A Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) monitors and controls how users interact with cloud applications by enforcing your organization’s security policies across multiple cloud services simultaneously.

Modern CASBs primarily operate through API integrations that connect directly to cloud services like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and Slack. This approach has largely replaced the older proxy-based model, which required routing traffic through on-premises hardware and often caused performance issues.

CASBs provide four core security functions:

1. Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Prevents sensitive information from being shared inappropriately, whether through email, file sharing, or messaging platforms.
2. Threat Protection: Scans files for malware, detects suspicious login patterns, and identifies compromised accounts before they can cause damage.
3. Shadow IT Discovery: Identifies unauthorized cloud applications being used within your organization and assesses their security risks.
4. Compliance Enforcement: Ensures cloud usage meets regulatory requirements and internal policies, with automated reporting for audits.

CASBs are an important part of an enterprise security system. They help make sure that no unauthorized user, device, or application accesses corporate cloud data. 

These tools also enable your company to track the activities of users in your organization, identify risky behavior and stop it before the incident occurs. 

One of the other key advantages of modern CASB is AI-powered visibility across your entire cloud ecosystem. These platforms now use machine learning to establish baseline user behavior patterns and automatically detect anomalies that traditional rule-based systems miss. 

Instead of managing security policies separately for each cloud service, CASB creates a unified control point that integrates with SASE architectures, providing consistent security regardless of how or where employees access applications.

Advantages of CASB

CASB solutions provide distinct security benefits that complement SSPM capabilities:

1. Real-Time Data Loss Prevention

CASBs monitor data transfers as they happen, blocking attempts to share sensitive information through unauthorized channels. This includes detecting when employees try to upload confidential documents to personal cloud storage or send customer data through unencrypted messaging platforms.

2. Shadow IT Discovery

CASB platforms identify unauthorized cloud applications being used within your organization, often revealing security risks that IT teams didn’t know existed. This visibility extends to mobile apps, browser-based tools, and desktop applications that connect to cloud services.

3. User Behavior Analytics

These tools establish baseline patterns for normal user activity and flag anomalies that might indicate compromised accounts or insider threats. Examples include unusual login locations, abnormal data access patterns, or access attempts outside normal business hours.

4. Content Inspection and Threat Protection

CASBs scan files for malware, check URLs against threat intelligence feeds, and analyze email attachments before they reach users, providing an additional layer of protection beyond traditional endpoint security.

5. Policy Enforcement Across Multiple Platforms

Rather than configuring security policies separately for each cloud service, CASB creates unified policies that work consistently across your entire cloud ecosystem, simplifying management and reducing configuration errors.

6. Integration with Zero Trust Frameworks

Modern CASB solutions integrate seamlessly with identity providers and network access control systems, supporting zero trust security models that verify every user and device before granting access to resources.

7. AI-Powered Behavioral Analysis

Modern CASB platforms use machine learning algorithms to analyze user behavior patterns over time, automatically identifying subtle anomalies that might indicate account compromise or insider threats. This goes beyond simple rule-based detection to catch sophisticated attacks that adapt to avoid traditional security measures.

CASB Use Cases

CASB solutions address specific security challenges related to cloud access and data protection:

1. Data Protection for Remote Workers

A consulting firm uses CASB to ensure that sensitive client documents can’t be downloaded to personal devices or shared through unauthorized channels. When an employee tries to access confidential files from an unmanaged laptop, the CASB restricts access to view-only mode and prevents downloading.

2. Shadow IT Discovery and Risk Assessment

IT teams discover that employees are using dozens of unauthorized cloud applications through CASB visibility features. The platform reveals that marketing is using an unvetted file-sharing service and sales is storing customer data in a personal productivity app, enabling IT to assess risks and provide approved alternatives.

3. Malware Detection and File Scanning

CASB platforms scan all files uploaded to cloud services for malware, preventing infected documents from spreading through shared folders. This is particularly valuable for organizations that frequently receive files from external partners or customers.

4. Cross-Cloud Data Governance

A multinational corporation uses CASB to enforce consistent data handling policies across Office 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce simultaneously. The platform ensures that customer data marked as confidential receives the same protection regardless of which cloud service employees use.

5. Regulatory Compliance Enforcement

Healthcare organizations rely on CASB to maintain HIPAA compliance by preventing patient data from being accessed or shared inappropriately. The system blocks attempts to email protected health information to external addresses and logs all access for audit purposes.

6. Compromised Account Detection

CASB platforms identify potentially compromised accounts by analyzing login patterns, data access behavior, and geographic locations. When an account suddenly starts downloading large amounts of data from an unusual location, the system can automatically suspend access and alert security teams.

What is SSPM?

SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) is a solution that provides visibility and control over a company’s SaaS security posture. These tools are subscription-based platforms that are designated for cloud SaaS environments (e.g., Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace™).

Security posture is the state of an organization’s cybersecurity. It identifies the company’s ability to protect its environment and data against cyber threats as well as respond timely and efficiently to cyber incidents.

SSPM Functionality:

1. Configuration control. SSPMs monitor SaaS environments and identify misconfigurations that can cause cyber incidents or non-compliance. Robust solutions include the ability to enforce policy and prevent unauthorized changes to an organization’s SaaS configurations.
2. Access management. SSPMs detect gaps in access settings and help configure them according to security policies. This matters for both human and nonhuman identities, and prevents / alerts on security setting changes that can reduce the effectiveness of existing access control policies.
3. Shadow IT Discovery. Some SSPMs, like SpinOne and SpinSPM, discover, inventory, and assess risk of OAuth applications and browser extensions users install or attempt to install. This is key to protecting SaaS proactively, as these extensions and apps often attempt to gain access to, process, and even send SaaS data to backend LLMs or other external locations.
4. Risk assessment. SSPMs analyze the potential and existing risks in the cloud, such as authorized or unauthorized browser extensions and applications that can put SaaS data in harm’s way. Without a detailed assessment, it can be difficult for IT and security teams to know which OAuth apps or browser extensions are putting their data in harm’s way.
5. Remediation. SSPMs have the functionality to not only alert on incidents, but automatically remediate, as well as recover from cyber incidents.

Key Challenges that SSPM Tools Help to Deal with:

• The abundance of cyber events in multi-cloud environments.
• The lack of visibility into events, configurations, data, OAuth apps, extensions, and user activities.
• The inability of the IT security team to respond to the incidents quickly.

SSPMs can easily integrate with and complement other cloud security solutions like CASBs, SIEM, and IAM. Learn more about SSPM.

Advantages of SSPM

SSPM solutions offer several key advantages for organizations managing complex SaaS environments:

1. Continuous Configuration Monitoring

SSPM tools automatically scan SaaS applications around the clock, identifying misconfigurations before they create security gaps. This includes monitoring settings like external sharing permissions, multi-factor authentication requirements, and data retention policies.

2. Automated Remediation

Many SSPM platforms can automatically correct common misconfigurations without manual intervention, reducing the time between detection and resolution from days to minutes.

3. Compliance Assurance

SSPM solutions maintain continuous compliance with expanding regulatory requirements including SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR, and newer frameworks like the EU AI Act, state-level privacy laws (CCPA, Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act), and industry-specific mandates such as DORA for financial services.

 The platforms generate audit-ready reports and automatically flag compliance gaps before they become violations.

4. Enhanced Visibility

These tools provide comprehensive dashboards showing the security posture across all connected SaaS applications, making it easier to spot trends and prioritize remediation efforts.

5. Third-Party Risk Management:

 SSPM platforms assess the security risks of OAuth applications, browser extensions, and other third-party integrations that connect to your SaaS environment.

6. SASE Architecture Compatibility

SSPM solutions increasingly integrate with Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platforms, providing configuration monitoring and compliance assurance that works seamlessly with cloud-delivered network security services. 

This integration is particularly valuable for organizations adopting Zero Trust networking models.

SSPM Use Cases

Organizations typically implement SSPM solutions to address specific security challenges in their SaaS environments:

1. Misconfiguration Management

A healthcare organization uses SSPM to ensure that patient data in Microsoft 365 isn’t accidentally shared externally due to incorrect permission settings. The tool automatically detects when file sharing is set to “anyone with the link” and either alerts administrators or reverts to secure settings.

2. Compliance Monitoring

Financial services companies rely on SSPM to maintain SOC 2 and PCI-DSS compliance across multiple SaaS applications. The platform continuously monitors access controls, encryption settings, and audit logging to ensure all requirements are met without manual oversight.

3. Third-Party Browser Extension and App Risk Assessment

An SSPM platform evaluates OAuth applications connected to Google Workspace, identifying apps with excessive permissions or suspicious origins. For example, it might flag a productivity app that requests access to all email content when it only needs calendar permissions.

4. Insider Threat Detection

SSPM tools analyze user permissions across SaaS platforms to identify potential risks, such as employees with access to sensitive data they don’t need for their role, or accounts with administrative privileges that haven’t been used in months.

5. Multi-SaaS Environment Governance

Large enterprises use SSPM to maintain consistent security policies across dozens of SaaS applications, ensuring that security settings in Salesforce match the same standards applied to Slack, Zoom, and other business-critical tools.

6. Automated Security Posture Scoring

Organizations track their overall SaaS security health through automated scoring systems that weigh various risk factors, helping prioritize remediation efforts and demonstrate security improvements to leadership.

CASB vs. SSPM

Many people, and even cybersecurity professionals, find it difficult to tell the difference between CASB and SSPM solutions. There are some similarities between them. For example, both are security solutions that are deployed in the cloud and help prevent cyber incidents.

However, CASB differs from SSPM when it comes to application, deployment, timing, and scope. Let’s take a closer look at each of these aspects.

Application

CASB usually works with both on-premise and cloud solutions. SSPM is a cloud-only solution.

Deployment

SSPM is a subscription-based platform. CASB can be a SaaS or a software tool that companies purchase and then install on their system. Some on-prem CASBs require the purchase of additional hardware to operate.

Timing

CASBs traditionally focused on real-time prevention and monitoring, while SSPMs concentrated on continuous posture assessment and post-incident remediation. 

However, this distinction has blurred as modern CASB platforms now include forensic capabilities and historical analysis features, allowing them to investigate incidents after they occur and provide detailed audit trails for compliance purposes.

Scope

CASB and SSPM have different but overlapping scopes. CASBs focus on data protection, user behavior, and access control across multiple cloud services, while SSPMs concentrate on security configuration and compliance within specific SaaS applications. 

Modern CASB platforms have expanded beyond simple access control to include threat detection, compliance reporting, and risk analytics. SSPMs provide deeper configuration management but typically focus on fewer applications with more granular control.

What is Best for Your Organization: CASB or SSPM?

The choice between CASB and SSPM isn’t really about picking one over the other – it’s about understanding which problem you need to solve first.

If your biggest headache is not knowing what cloud apps your employees are using or worrying about sensitive data ending up in the wrong places, CASB makes more sense as a starting point. 

It’s particularly valuable for organizations with remote workers accessing company data from personal devices, or those dealing with regulations that focus heavily on data protection and access controls.

When to Prioritize SSPM?

SSPM becomes the priority when you know exactly which cloud applications you’re using but can’t seem to keep them configured securely. This often happens to organizations that have grown quickly and ended up with inconsistent security settings across multiple SaaS platforms. 

If your recent security incidents involve things like accidentally sharing public file shares or misconfigured access permissions, SSPM will solve those problems more directly.

For smaller organizations – roughly under 500 employees – implementing both tools simultaneously usually creates more problems than it solves. The integration work and ongoing management can overwhelm IT teams that are already stretched thin. 

CASB tends to show results faster if you’re dealing with immediate data protection concerns, while SSPM provides better long-term risk reduction for compliance-heavy environments.

The integration story matters too. If you’ve already invested in SIEM or security orchestration tools, SSPM typically fits into those workflows more naturally. 

Organizations with mature identity management systems often find CASB easier to deploy because it builds on existing authentication infrastructure.

Creating a Complete Cloud Backup Strategy

Most mature organizations eventually implement both solutions, but they do it as part of a broader security architecture rather than as isolated tools. The combination works particularly well for heavily regulated industries where both data protection and internal controls matter equally. 

Healthcare organizations, for example, need CASB to prevent patient data from leaving through unauthorized channels and SSPM to ensure their SaaS applications meet HIPAA configuration requirements.

The real question isn’t whether you need both – it’s which one solves your most pressing problem today. Organizations looking to start with SSPM can evaluate solutions like SpinOne that provide automated shadow IT management, misconfiguration detection, access control, policy enforcement, and remediation across major SaaS platforms.

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