CloudLock Launches “Firewall” For Google Apps

CloudLock, a provider of cloud data security solutions, today launched “CloudLock Apps Firewall”, a solution that the company says helps enterprises discover, classify and enable trusted third party mobile and web applications that require access to users’ Google Apps accounts and data.

The company says that CloudLock Apps Firewall was designed to give employees the freedom and flexibility to perform their daily tasks, but also to give IT and security teams the visibility and control to enforce Approved Application Policies.

“Companies moving to cloud collaboration suites like Google Apps, aren’t just moving their data, they’re also fundamentally changing how third party apps gain access to that data. The shift to the cloud creates a new, virtual security perimeter that includes apps that read from and write to domain data, as well as the vendors behind them,” said Gil Zimmermann, CEO and Co-Founder of CloudLock.

Companies using Google Apps can now use CloudLock Apps Firewall to balance the productivity gains from these apps with keeping corporate data safe, CloudLock says.

CloudLock Apps Firewall helps enterprises extend their security practices to include Google Apps, and offers features including:

• Ongoing monitoring and discovery of new apps used in the domain

• Encouraging user productivity by promoting trusted, approved applications

• The ability to protect the domain associated with a Google Apps account from unapproved application access, with enterprise wide visibility and the controls needed to remediate across thousands of users

• Supporting a distributed and mobile workforce, applying consistent security regardless of endpoint device or location.

Granting third party services permission to Google Apps accounts or account data certainly has its benefits, and can provide additional productivity to users, but also should be something that is watched by IT security teams.

“While these permissions may very well be legitimate to ensure the apps’ expected behavior, it is important for the corporate IT team to have visibility into what applications domain users are leveraging, to identify tools that could benefit the entire workforce and to ensure that these permissions are not overly intrusive,” the company explained.

Available immediately, CloudLock Apps Firewall is offered with different subscription options, including a Professional Edition priced at $8 per user/year, or an Enterprise Edition that offers more features and priced at $12 per user, per year. They also offer a free limited version that lets you view all the documents and sites in your domain. 

More information is available here.