In this Digital era, getting your own hands into every operational activity is not the right thing to do. There are IT transformation consulting experts whose experience and skill set can be leveraged to reduce time, effort, and cost for your organization.
In that context, today’s organizations are delivering more and more into cloud-based infrastructure. Rather than installing and maintaining software, they directly access it via the online platform, eliminating the need for complex technology and digital management.
But there is a second side to every existing coin!
Even though SaaS implementation is a better thing to go for, there are saas security issues are also associated with that as well! However, the good news is, that these saas security concerns can be mitigated to a great extent using a certain set of practices. Let’s delve into them!
It is smart to learn from own mistakes, but it’s SMARTER to learn from others’ mistakes. So, here’s a list of risks and challenges you may face while incorporating SaaS and some precautions you might take to minimize the risk of using SaaS!
Data security is a critical issue that must be addressed. Firms that do not practice proper SaaS governance cannot guarantee that almost all of the apps and platforms they use meet legal and regulatory requirements. As a result, they have no idea if they are in compliance with data privacy laws. Even when an app is technically compliant, the lack of governance implies that the company has no idea how the app has been used.
Identity theft is among the most serious concern in cloud computing security. Hackers usually try to pretend the user characteristics after getting access to user identities and passwords. This directly results in malicious attacks and data leaks.
When you first start your business, the expense of your SaaS apps is not really a major concern. You save money because you are not incurring capital expenses. However, when you scale it up, it hits! According to research, companies with one to fifty personnel use 25-50 SaaS apps, while companies with 250 employees or more use over 100 SaaS apps. Companies will waste money on apps that do not push their business forward if they are not effectively controlled and managed.
Because SaaS environments continue operating in the public cloud, organizations need to consider the unique cyber attacks posed by cloud applications. When a SaaS provider or a SaaS consumer fails to produce a secured cloud environment, data security is jeopardized. Such security management flaws expose organizations to a wide range of cyber threats.
Except for the traditional data center models, the security risks of cloud contexts are the obligation of both an organization and its cloud providers. Each one of your organization’s SaaS distributors will have a unique collective responsibility model outlining every party’s responsibilities and duties.
Security teams must take into account each SaaS service’s unique security standards or risk creating cyberwarfare gaps under the presumption that the vendor is liable. Organizations should also recollect that inadequate data security is inevitably their obligation in the event of a security breach. Understanding the joint commitment of the SaaS deployment model for cloud applications is crucial for businesses to design an effective cyber security program for SaaS apps in the cloud, as controlling these incidents falls under their purview.
When cybercriminals target an organization through security flaws in its supply chain, this is referred to as a supply chain attack. This type of vulnerability is frequently caused by a vendor’s poor security practices. Cybercriminals can affect your organization’s sensitive information by targeting your vendor’s software program code, updating frameworks, or building processes.
To avert supply chain attacks, your organization cannot rely solely on strong domestic cybersecurity practices. To identify and ameliorate supply chain vulnerabilities before malicious hackers exploit them, security teams require detailed awareness of the entire supplier ecosystem.
To prevent leaks, organizations should explore their data from multiple sources and categorize it so that appropriate permissions can be delegated to access confidential/restricted data, ensuring that only authorized users have access to it. Data encryption at transit and rest should indeed be ensured, and policy configuration utilizing DLP (Data Loss Prevention) tools should be aimed at controlling data transfer into and out of the organization to applications and end-user devices.
To prevent identity theft, businesses need to be aware of their users, their role and responsibilities, titles, and their access advantages to SaaS apps. Second, they must ensure appropriate authorized access for both B2B/B2C and internal purposes. Businesses can control, monitor, as well as manage user access by granting the principle of least privilege resources and providing safe access from somewhere outside their network. This will help to prevent malevolent identity theft schemes.
It is also critical to educate customers on the risks of using common passwords including all applications in order to avoid becoming a victim of a brute force attack. To summaries, controls that can enhance authentication and authorization include single sign-on implementation, role-based user access definition, as well as multi-factor identity verification policing.
This is where selecting the right SaaS visibility toolkits comes into the equation. Some vendors offer better exposure to your SaaS applications, allowing you to analyze whether users are utilizing all of an app’s or platform’s features and functionality or just the most basic features. This knowledge is essential when it comes to contract renewal agreements.
Companies are advised to use Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) to gain greater visibility into cloud security controls as well as security protocols. SASE is a new cloud-based security architecture that provides more innovative cloud data protection capabilities than traditional network infrastructure.
SASE architecture promotes zero-trust network access (ZTNA) by facilitating the least privilege premise and identity access management (IAM) mechanisms such as Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) as well as multi-factor authentication.
Native exploration and alerting techniques, such as SIEM and SOAR solutions, can assist enterprises in updating incident response methods through the use of playbooks. This will allow for a quicker response to alerts. Intelligent machine learning algorithms can be used to generate an auto-response to update and act on attacks.
Organizations must regularly follow a saas security checklist at all phases of the vendor lifecycle, and not just during the vetting system. Due to the fact that most large organizations manage hundreds or even thousands of suppliers, undertaking effective due diligence across the entire vendor ecosystem can quickly become complex and difficult.
As businesses increasingly embrace various ‘Software-as-a-Service’ models, establishing enduring partnerships with service providers is poised to foster innovation by effectively addressing evolving customer needs. SaaS holds the potential to tackle critical business hurdles, such as accurately predicting customer churn rates and optimizing cross-selling strategies.
Given the escalating demands for extensive data handling, robust software performance, and reliable backup solutions, the appeal of entrusting these tasks to cloud-based providers is evident.
If you're thinking of a transition to a SaaS platform, see how Antino distinguishes itself in building secure SaaS products tailored to businesses of every scale. Our expertise lies in building fortified SaaS solutions, ensuring your data and operations are shielded with the highest level of security. Consult our experts today!
