Understanding SaaS Security: Risks and Best Practices
Software as a Service (SaaS) applications have become widespread and indispensable for businesses of all sizes, and for good reason. The convenience, flexibility, and scalability mean teams can access the essential tools and data from anywhere around the globe. This convenience and accessibility, however, does pose its own set of challenges when it comes to security risks.
In this article, we’ll delve into why SaaS is so popular, what SaaS security entails, and how the associated security risks can be mitigated with the right processes and toolsets.
What makes SaaS apps so popular?
SaaS applications offer many aspects that make them useful and attractive to businesses. SaaS apps can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, making them ideal for remote and distributed teams. They also seamlessly operate across different devices.
Many organisations use SaaS apps because they need something that can scale with their growing business, whilst handling large datasets that need to be managed in real-time and accessed by different teams.
SaaS solutions often offer customisable features that can be tailored to meet specific business needs. They are designed to be as user-friendly as possible, meaning there are less barriers for large and dispersed team members.
They also have no specific hardware requirements, meaning they can be used by anyone on any device. With this comes cost-effectiveness, as the benefit of subscription services per usage keeps costs minimised.
What is SaaS security?
As SaaS applications are widely accessible, it opens them up to various cyber threats that can impact both the software and its users.
SaaS security refers to the various measures and practices specifically designed to protect SaaS applications and the data they handle from unauthorised access, breaches, and other cyber threats. Typically measures include encryption, monitoring, secure web gateways (SWGs), and cloud access security solutions, among others.
Effective SaaS security must ensure that businesses can leverage the benefits of SaaS applications while trusting that the SaaS maintains a secure and cohesive environment for all users. The primary aim is to secure these applications against malware and unauthorised access without hindering user experience.
The risks associated with SaaS applications
SaaS allows for quick and easy onboarding of new services without the need for hardware or servers. However, this means users don't have direct access to servers for patching. Security is centered on assurance, and SaaS changes how this assurance is obtained.
Whilst you organisations trust their application vendors to be carrying out appropriate measures to prevent breaches, this doesn’t mean it always happens. With SaaS, you are essentially outsourcing the responsibility for protecting your data and employees to the application itself. This, inevitably, poses unforeseen risks that can lead to devastating breaches for organisations.
What kind of risks is your business open to when using SaaS applications? Here are a few primary ones:
1. Shadow SaaS
Shadow IT is an umbrella term that refers to the use of applications and hardware that have not been vetted by an organisation; it’s specifically the unapproved use of SaaS applications. The more SaaS apps that are being used, the wider your attack surface, and it is difficult to defend apps that you as a security team don’t know employees are using.
2. Unauthorised access
As an outcome of having shadow SaaS, you can’t always guarantee the right people are accessing tools. You may have monitoring tools to geo-lock access to an approved application, but challenges arise when knowing for certain who is logging into an application. Lost devices, shared workspaces and remote employees heighten these risks significantly.
3. Data loss
So if you don’t know what apps are being used, how they are configured, who is accessing them, or what is being uploaded to them, then how can you effectively protect your data? SaaS applications pose all sorts of risks when it comes to data protection. SaaS providers store masses of data belonging to large and reputable organisations, making them a prime target for cyber crime. Whilst they might be claiming to stay compliant, it’s hard to ever be sure of a SaaS application’s true security protocols.
4. Insider threats
Insider risks frequently stem not from malicious intent but from employees attempting to enhance efficiency by setting up SaaS applications. The key concern with SaaS security isn’t the act itself, but the lack of assurance that your data is adequately protected. While a malicious insider might configure a SaaS application to facilitate data exfiltration, data loss is just as likely to occur due to accidental errors or misconfigurations. Ultimately, you cannot protect what you are unaware of.
Best practices for SaaS security
With this in mind, organisations must take SaaS security into their hands. Security teams must assume vendor instability and breach possibility, and develop internal procedures that can protect both employees and data.
Some best practices include:
1. Visibility
You can’t protect what you can’t see, so your first defense is visibility. Organisations must be aware of which SaaS apps their employees are using and ensure they are using them securely. They must take ownership of monitoring application usage to avoid unauthorised, or insecure applications being used on company devices. Tools like CultureAI can help you gain visibility of unauthorised applications being used by employees, and trigger notifications or just-in-time education to ensure only company-approved software is used.
2. Strong authentication measures
To counter unauthorised access, it is important to have strong authentication measures in place.
An approved SaaS platform should use an authentication method like single-sign on (SSO) or multi-factor authentication (MFA). These act as an extra layer of security that the right people are accessing data.
Regular audits of access and permissions are vital, as well as enabling different levels of access, so that teams are only accessing information relevant to their roles.
3. Regular security audits
Regular security audits need to be conducted to identify and address any vulnerabilities in your SaaS applications. These audits should include both internal assessments and third-party evaluations. It is as important to audit the management of your data, as well as the application itself, to ensure compliance with regulations.
4. In the moment coaching
Arguably, employees are organisations biggest risk when it comes to SaaS security. Discovering which applications they are using is one element of security, but another is to educate them in real-time. Security tools, like CultureAI, offer bite-sized content that is shared in real-time when employees are unintentionally accessing unapproved apps, or logging on without SSO. A proactive message can reinforce good security practices in the moment, encouraging good security behaviours and giving security teams better visibility of their most prominent vulnerabilities.
What to look for in a SaaS security solution?
When selecting a SaaS security solution, organisations should consider their gaps in knowledge and power.
Security teams should ask themselves:
Do we have visibility of weak or reused password usage?
Can we confirm if our teams are using SSO or MFA?
Do we know how many employees are accessing unauthorised apps?
Do we have adequate management of unauthorised apps?
What are our compliance risks?
How can we prevent human-error?
Organisations asking these questions and not coming to clear conclusions need to look at an appropriate Human Risk Management platform that empowers teams with the tools to enhance their SaaS security measures.
With a data-driven platform like CultureAI, security teams can harness automation to detect and respond to SaaS security risks in real time, reducing the potential impact of security incidents.
As well as understanding what SaaS apps employees are using and how they are using them, security teams can surface their biggest SaaS risks, and remediate them seamlessly. CultureAI's extension is compatible with all major browsers and can be deployed centrally with just a few clicks. This easy setup gives organisations the power to triage saas risks with ease, implementing Targeted Coaching and Nudges to improve behaviours and reduce risks when necessary.
With CultureAI, organisations can securely reap the benefits of SaaS.