Top SaaS Security Risks & How to Prevent Them?
Using SaaS for your business? Great! But are you sure your data is safe?
Cloud services like SaaS are undoubtedly everywhere! We use them for emails, sales, marketing, and other things.
The 2021 study says approximately 90% of businesses, or let’s say 9 out of 10 organizations, are utilizing Software-as-a-service (SaaS) and finding it incredibly beneficial.
From cost reductions to faster time-to-market, SaaS services help organizations fulfill their primary objectives.
But with its growing usage and adoption, security concerns have also grown. Though organizations must trust SaaS providers with their sensitive data, data breaches often occur due to weak security measures.
Misconfigured settings, lax access controls, even data leaks… and more are enough to make your head spin.
So, is the SaaS provider keeping your data safe?
This article outlines the top SaaS security threats and how organizations can prevent them before they result in data breaches.
What is SaaS Security?
Software-as-a-Service is a software delivery model hosted by cloud providers and accessed by end users over the Internet. Independent software vendors (ISVs) usually hire third-party cloud providers to host their applications, though some cloud providers also act as software vendors.
Further, SaaS security is a subset of cloud security, a set of practices and tools used to safeguard SaaS applications and their sensitive data. It incorporates strong access controls, secure configurations, least privileged access, and encrypted data.
However, SaaS security is a shared responsibility between business and cloud providers – with the SaaS provider being in charge of securing their systems and infrastructure (including parts not managed by the customers).
They offer security features to protect customers’ applications and data. However, the customer is responsible for setting the configurations properly to ensure their applications remain safe.
Top 6 SaaS Security Risks
1. Cloud Misconfigurations
As Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) operates in the public cloud, organizations must be aware of the unique cyber threats it brings.
Cloud misconfigurations usually happen when a SaaS provider or customer doesn’t secure the cloud properly, putting data at risk. This lapse in security management exposes organizations to various threats like
- Cloud Leak,
- Ransomware
- Malware
- Phishing
- Hackers and Threats
One common misconfiguration is granting excessive permissions, like providing too many access rights to an end-user, leading to permission gaps in access control. Excessive permissions are primary security concerns leading to all the above threats.
A popular example of cloud misconfiguration is when Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) default settings for S3 buckets cause problems. Another example is the Microsoft PowerApps Data Leak, where the misconfigured OData APIs were found in Microsoft’s Power Apps portals. This resulted in the exposure of 38 million records across 47 organizations.
So, based on these studies, it is predicted that not only cloud providers but also organizations must tighten their security measures.
2. Supply Chain Attacks
In supply chain attacks, cybercriminals target organizations through the different vulnerabilities of their supply chain. These vulnerabilities often occur due to poor vendor security practices.
Cybercriminals can compromise sensitive data by attacking a vendor’s software – source code, updating mechanisms, and even building processes. One of the largest supply chain attacks was the SolarWinds cyber attack, which targeted the US government and was facilitated by an IT update from SolarWinds.
Recommended: Most Common Software Supply Chain Attacks & How to Prevent
Based on this case study, organizations must not solely rely on internal cybersecurity practices to prevent such attacks. Instead, they should have detailed visibility into their vendor ecosystem to identify and fix vulnerabilities before cybercriminals exploit them.
3. Third-Party Risk
SaaS services also come with third-party risk, which means risks from any third party in an organization’s supply chain. While a contracted office janitor might pose low risk, a SaaS vendor carries high risk as they handle sensitive data.
Most SaaS applications will access or store the organization’s sensitive data, including the PII (publicly identifiable information) and other confidential data.
Even with strict security measures in place, an organization’s security is only as strong as the weakest link in the supply chain. Thus, organizations must incorporate effective third-party risk management programs to consistently monitor and manage the cyber risks their SaaS vendors contribute.
4. Insufficient Due Diligence
Vendor due diligence is a thorough assessment of potential vendors before sharing sensitive data with them. So, a due diligence assessment verifies the accuracy of the vendor’s claims about security measures and regulatory compliance.
Additionally, it helps identify the existing security risks of vendors, allowing client organizations to request remediation before partnering up.
Many organizations usually fail to conduct adequate due diligence, as they only assess vendors during onboarding. If a SaaS vendor suffers a cyber attack, threat actors can use its compromised systems to access an organization’s sensitive data, leading to regulatory, financial, and reputational consequences.
So, organizations should treat SaaS vendors as strictly as other attacks to prevent data breaches and other cyber attacks. Security teams of an organization must take a systematic approach through a structured vendor risk management program, which helps gain visibility into each vendor’s security posture at a particular time.
5. Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
Zero-day vulnerabilities are unpatched software flaws that developers are unaware of. Cybercriminals exploit such flaws through cyber attacks, frequently resulting in data breaches and loss across affected organizations.
These vulnerabilities are especially harmful when discovered in popular SaaS systems, as they can potentially disrupt many organizations, resulting in a widespread shutdown of operations.
For example, in 2020, Accellion’s file-sharing system, FTA, was penetrated by web shell assaults and zero-day vulnerabilities that exploited the unpatched software vulnerability.
This event was one of several supply chain assaults that compromised the sensitive data of over 100 Accellion clients, causing operational interruptions.
To avoid such security risks, organizations must be able to quickly identify vulnerabilities in SaaS products.
6. Unclear Responsibilities
Unlike other traditional data center models, the security of cloud environments is the responsibility of both organizations and their cloud service providers.
Security teams must understand each SaaS service’s unique security requirements and not assume the vendor is solely responsible for security. Ultimately, insufficient data security falls on the organization in the event of a data breach.
Top SaaS Security Trends
Democratization of SaaS
SaaS apps have transformed how companies buy and use software. Business units purchase and onboard the SaaS tools that best fit their needs. Though this empowers organizations, it requires them to rethink their security measures.
Security teams don’t always have control or know what’s happening with these apps. Each SaaS app is different, with its own security words and settings, making it tough for security teams to make rules for all of them.
So, security teams must find new ways to work with these departments and tools that show them what’s happening in each app.
ITDR Forms a Critical Safety Net
If a threat can get into a top-level account, they can do anything in the app.
Companies now see that the main way to protect these SaaS apps is to watch who’s logging in. When a threat actor gets into a normal account, they usually follow common tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) as they try to get to the data they want. They leave clues called indicators of compromise, or IoCs, in the app.
So, this year, more companies will start using an Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR) approach, which can see when someone’s acting suspiciously and send a warning to the security team. This helps stop threat actors before they can take any data or do anything bad to the app.
Cross-Border Compliance Means More Tenants to Secure
Massive companies worldwide have to follow different rules in different countries. So for that, in 2024, more companies will use smaller pieces of their apps in different places to keep their data safe.
This change won’t even cost more as more SaaS app pricing is based on subscribers instead of tenants, but it will complicate things for security.
Each piece will need its own rules, and just because one piece is safe doesn’t mean all are. To keep them all safe, security teams need tools to set benchmarks, compare each piece, and display security settings side-by-side without any extra charge for each new piece.
Misconfigured Settings Are Leading to New Exploits
A default misconfiguration in ServiceNow in October scared many companies. A similar misconfiguration occurred in Salesforce in May. These misconfigurations impacted thousands of companies and led to data breaches.
Such exploits can also cause major damage to organizations, breaking their customers’ trust and getting them into legal trouble. Securing misconfigurations is the best way to prevent such exploits from impacting operations and hurting the bottom lines.
AI Supply Chain Risk
AI played a big role in 2023, but not many organizations made their own big AI models. Instead, 78% of them used AI tools from companies like OpenAI and Glide. Over half of them only used these third-party AI providers.
Introducing any new software or service provider raises concerns about third-party risk and data privacy. But with AI, these worries multiply because of emerging vulnerabilities and AI threats that have yet to be fully understood.
If we’re not careful, our private data could be used to train AI algorithms that anyone can use, even if we don’t share it directly with an AI provider.
In 2024, securing the AI supply chain will become a prominent part of how organizations manage risks from third-party providers. But first, they must deal with the “shadow AI” problem, as many are still struggling to control the unsanctioned AI used across their organization.
Multiple Devices to Secure as Working from Home Isn’t Going Anywhere
Many people (nearly 40%) worked from home in 2023, and that’s not changing soon. When we go deep into WFHResearch, it is found that 12% of people only work from home, and the other 28% have hybrid roles. This means that many people use their own computers to do their work.
Surprisingly, one of the biggest security concerns here occurs when high-privileged users log into their accounts using an unmanaged and unsecured device. Such devices may possess critical vulnerabilities and create new attack vectors.
For many security teams, there is no way to tell which devices are used to access the SaaS app to see whether those devices are secured or not.
Organizations Are Turning to SSPM to Secure SaaS
Among various security concerns, SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) tools, like Adaptive Shield, with ITDR capabilities help with these problems.
SSPMs are designed to monitor configurations, looking for configuration drift weakening the app’s posture.
As per the SaaS security survey, 2024 Plans & Priorities by Cloud Security Association and Adaptive Shield, around 71% of companies said their organizations had increased their investment into SaaS security tools, and 80% were already using SSPM.
SSPMs can help with many things, like keeping an eye on all the parts of an app, monitoring third-party apps, and ensuring people’s computers are safe. It also alerts users if the apps request too much access and updates the security team when apps are dormant. It also tracks users while monitoring devices used to access applications to prevent unmanaged or unsecured devices on SaaS apps.
How SaaS Security Can Affect Organizations?
SaaS can affect organizations in many ways, including
Data Breaches:
Storing sensitive data like financial data, customer information, and trade secrets in the cloud – and if this data is unsecured, it can be accessed by unauthorized parties over the internet.
Phishing Attacks:
These are used to target SaaS apps because they rely on user credentials to access data. With these credentials, hackers access the app and all stored data.
Malware Attacks:
It is introduced via unsecured network connections, unpatched software vulnerabilities, etc. Once malware reaches a SaaS application, it can steal data or carry out unauthorized actions.
DDoS Attacks:
Attackers can flood a SaaS application with traffic from multiple devices, overwhelming its servers and making it unavailable to users – overall disrupting business operations and resulting in lost productivity and revenue.
Insider Threats:
These occur when employees have access to sensitive data stored in SaaS applications. For this, companies need to have proper security measures to prevent these types of incidents.
How to Mitigate SaaS Security Risks?
Research shows that modern organizations will continue leveraging SaaS solutions to drive more critical operations, which will grow the SaaS market.
However, for smooth operations, employing SaaS-specific security measures is essential. Here are the SaaS Security Best Practices to mitigate risks:
Implement Cloud Security Mechanisms
Organizations must incorporate Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) to enable proper visibility over cloud security controls and policies. SASE is an emerging cloud security architecture offering highly advanced cloud data protection features compared to traditional ones.
SASE architecture also follows the ZTNA (zero-trust) network by enabling the least privilege principle and IAM (identity access management) mechanisms.
Establish an Incident Response Plan
Even with a proper information security policy, security breaches do occur. So, organizations must minimize their impact to avoid costly damage. The incident response plan should cover specific scenarios like malware infections and customer data breaches.
An effective incident response plan performs these roles:
- Outlining all Key Stakeholders
- Streamlining Digital Forensics
- Shortening Recovery Time
- Protecting your Organization’s Reputation
Exercise Thorough Due Diligence
A routine assessment of SaaS vendors’ security postures is essential for organizations managing hundreds or thousands of vendors performing due diligence. However, it’s not easy.
So, implementing a vendor tiering process efficiently prioritizes high-risk vendors during routine risk assessments.
Provide Staff Training
With the adoption of the Work From Home approach, the number of endpoints operating on workplace networks like computers or laptops has increased. These additional attack vectors increase the attack surface, creating security inconsistencies as admins don’t have direct control over personal device settings.
Due to this, organizations’ information security policy should include staff training initiatives to keep all employees informed on security requirements. From social engineering tactics and clean desk policy to acceptable usage, cover all in training.
By following above best practices and security trends you can protect your SaaS and prevent attacks and risks.
