SaaS Security: Ensuring Compliance and Protection in the Cloud

SaaS (Software as a Service) has been among the most popular and thriving industries since the dot-com bubble. Many businesses, from retail to even the seafood industry, rely on various SaaS applications to manage different tasks.

Yet, like any technology, SaaS also comes with its potential security risks.

55% of SaaS businesses have faced security incidents in the last two years. So, you must ask, “How safe is my business, and how are you protecting your customers’ data?”

This is where you need to start thinking about implementing some of the best global security practices, and this article focuses on the importance of SaaS security and how you can create a checklist for one.

Let’s dive in…

What does SaaS Security mean?

SaaS Security helps safeguard your user privacy policy and company data in cloud applications. This is because most of the SaaS applications store/house massive amounts of sensitive information, which, if leaked, will result in a huge mess. Security of this data is more important because access to this data is kept open to various devices from multiple users to enable accessibility. 

This heightens the potential for risks to sensitive data. Hence, to move away from and fortify against these risks, you must implement encryption, authentication, access controls, and the like for optimal protection. We are going to discuss these in detail further in the article. 

On that note, the main problems and potential threats in SaaS-related cybersecurity often arise from your vulnerabilities in cloud computing.

Importance of securing your SaaS products

You need a security strategy to secure your SaaS products because, by default, your sensitive data is on a platform open for malicious activities, not well-intentioned insiders, and various other cyber threats.

Implementing SaaS security helps you avoid these security issues and save yourself from the consequences, including:

• Reputational damage
• Legal liabilities
• Financial loss
• Loss of trust from customers
• Compliance with security standards
• Minimizes data breaches

Challenges in securing your SaaS products

As SaaS security management is a mainstream trend nowadays, hackers and malicious insiders can easily access cloud data. But what are those specific challenges you’re going to face while securing your SaaS products?

We’ll see that below:

1. Third-Party Risk

One of the biggest concerns when dealing with third-party apps is the chance of data leaks and insider threats. When you let an app into your SaaS security platform, you’re relying on the app’s developers to keep your data safe. But are they implementing all the safety measures as they are supposed to? You will only know when you ask!

To explain logically, think about this: You might not see a janitor in your office as a big security risk, but a SaaS vendor is likely to be considered high-risk.

Even if your company has a strong layer of security measures, they’re only as good as the weakest link in the supply chain, which might be one click away from a big security breach. So, it’s imperative to be cautious when allowing third-party apps to access your data.

2. Data Loss

Last year alone, 58% of businesses were stuck with data loss in their SaaS applications. Hence, storing data in the cloud can make it extremely vulnerable to loss or corruption from problems like connectivity, device failures, or natural disasters.

You must carefully assess your SaaS storage providers to avoid this kind of business stunting risks.

For all you know, if this risk becomes a reality, you might lose sensitive data permanently, leading to significant financial, legal, and reputational consequences. It might question the very survival of your company as well.

That’s why SaaS service providers must identify potential threats and minimize the attack surface area.

3. Lack of access management

Many organizations face a high risk of internal attacks, with 90% feeling vulnerable, according to a 2018 study. Internal risks account for 75% of security incidents.

A major issue contributing to this is granting excessive access to employees, allowing them access to more data and applications than necessary.

This often occurs due to unclear role definitions, inaccurate identity classifications, or users being granted access to all application data.

Managing identities and access across different systems in the engineering ecosystem, from source control to deployment, poses a challenge.

The inadequate management of both human error and programmatic accounts increases the potential for compromise and the resulting damage.

4. Misconfigurations

Keeping your SaaS applications safe is not just your security team’s concerns or the development team’s responsibility. It has to be a shared responsibility.

But of course, most organizations seem to ignore this. This is why most SaaS products require users to configure various settings to align with their level of security and privacy policies.

Misconfigurations, especially in privacy settings, can become a major vulnerability. For example, take Slack, a collaboration tool over 12 million users use daily. You can make a simple mistake in this stool by forgetting to set your MFA or granting access to more than the required users.

This can lead to data breaches.

Don’t overlook these details; they are vital to securing your SaaS applications.

Top 8 SaaS Security Best Practices

Privacy advocates, including infosec analysts and IT departments, often express worries about buying and using SaaS, focusing on cybersecurity and privacy. Let’s address these concerns with seven straightforward SaaS security best practices to keep things moving in the right direction.

1. First things first, create a SaaS security checklist

You can always scroll online and create a generic security checklist. But SaaS is a specific industry where the threat actors are clever enough to maneuver into the cloud environment.

Let us tell you why the generic approach won’t work.

This is because the very nature of your app is different from other companies out there, and the priorities can change from time to time.

You need to talk to industry experts who can develop a unique checklist that applies to the nature of your app and the vendors you deal with.

Here is an example of how a SaaS security checklist would look like:

• Third-party penetration tests
• Web application Firewall
• Testing backups
• Encryption of data

This is where you should seriously consider investing in a Compliance Automation Platform like Sprint. Sprinto will recommend the best security practices. And more to that, you can import the CAIQ industry standard question bank with answers curated by Sprinto experts as well.

2. Vendor risk assessment

Assessing the risk from vendors involves looking into potential issues linked with third-party vendors and cloud providers. Here’s a simple breakdown of how network security teams can evaluate the security risk of each application:

• Check Their Rules: Look into whether vendors follow the rules for security and privacy.
• Size and Location Matters: See how big they are and where they are in the world.
• Public or Private?: Find out if they are public or private companies and how open they are about their security.

Then comes the SaaS Risk Assessment Report – a summary of all the important stuff about your cloud applications:

• What’s important that you found?
• Are there any out-of-order things happening against the rules?
• Did anyone accidentally spill some secrets?
• Where are your users throwing files around?
• Who’s causing the most issues?
• What files are your peeps loving?
• Which files are causing the most problems?

How can Sprinto help?

With Sprinto‘s end-to-end risk management, your vendor evaluations become comprehensive, frequent, and speedy. It automates the discovery of new vendors and managing risks throughout their lifecycle, providing you with greater control and confidence.

Sprinto’s all-in-one vendor risk management solution lets you create a remediation powerhouse that integrates with your current vendor management policy and practices.

Then, you will be able to streamline your workflows by setting up owners, defining steps, incorporating buffers, and implementing protocols for a thorough vendor risk management process.

Read how Phyllo demonstrated data security with Sprinto.

3. Security awareness

No matter the size, every organization faces the challenge of employees being the weak link in their IT security. The key here is to recognize that creating and running an awareness program varies based on the number of employees.

Now, here’s where Sprinto steps in to make things smoother. Sprinto has a built-in check for security training reminders. Imagine it as your personal assistant for keeping everyone on track.

The check kicks into action when a security training campaign request from the admin is still pending. “Due” if it’s pending, “Critical” if acknowledgment is overdue by 7 days, and “Failing” if the due date has passed without completion.

Sprinto ensures a “Passing” status once all the pending training and tests (if any) are successfully completed. It’s your tool to keep everyone on their toes and your data safe from potential risks like social engineering attacks, phishing scams, and accidental leaks.

4. Use Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Yes, you heard that right!

Using both MFA and SSO boosts security and improves your user experience.

Multi-Factor Authentication adds extra layers of verification, making it challenging for unauthorized access. This mounts a strong defense against intruders trying to get into your system.

On the other hand, Single Sign-On reduces the vulnerabilities associated with strong passwords and enhances overall convenience.

Together, they create a powerful combination for improving security, strong password policies, and user accessibility. This is a definite duo you need in your security stack!

5. Data Encryption

Data Encryption turns your valuable data into a secret code called ciphertext, making it unreadable without the magical decryption key.

When it comes to encryption keys, it’s often safer to use ones managed by you, the customer, rather than relying on those handed out by the vendor. But, before you make this decision, consider two key factors:

• Vendor Approval: Does the vendor even allow you to use your own keys?
• Risk Evaluation: Do the data you’re storing with the vendor require the extra level of protection that your keys offer?
• Or is the risk associated with using the vendor’s keys something you’re comfortable with?

6. Data Loss Prevention

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) involves policies and technologies to stop sensitive data from getting lost or stolen. In the world of SaaS, this includes security measures from the SaaS provider and actions the customer takes to safeguard their data.

DLP becomes crucial because SaaS applications often hold sensitive info like financial records, customer data, and intellectual property. It thwarts unauthorized access and the unintended leakage of such valuable data.

7. Compliance

An essential requirement for ensuring appropriate data handling in SaaS applications is the classification and assessment of data based on the types and sensitivity levels contained. In the same way, consider other factors such as how many records are at risk, organizational reliance, and continuity.

It is necessary to maintain compliance with regulatory standards. Key standards include:

• PCI DSS
• HIPAA
• SOC 2
• GDPR

Sprinto offers ongoing compliance with real-time visibility into the state of assets and security controls .

Sprinto’s fast detection and complete visibility ensure that decision-makers have timely information to allow them to make more prompt and better decisions. However, instead of taking shortcuts to meet the deadline for producing audit trails, you now can finally choose long-lasting solutions that would lead to improvements.

8. Ransomware Protection

Ransomware in SaaS, often called cloud ransomware, is malicious code crafted to attack cloud-based applications which include the likes of Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

In the past, using backup tools for recovery after attacks was common, but limitations in APIs made the process lengthy. To tackle this, we suggest adopting ransomware protection as a part of your SaaS security framework methods based on analyzing data behavior. This ensures a quicker and more effective defense against potential threats.

SaaS Security with Sprinto

With SaaS Security best practices, you must be vigilant to avoid costly information security mistakes. Even with solid checklists, risk assessments, and informed users, adapting to evolving security challenges is crucial.

Sprinto simplifies compliance with one or multiple security standards, keeping everything organized in one place—people, technology, security policies, and processes. You can use Sprint to implement controls, run checks, trigger workflows, and monitor compliance in real-time. This helps you avoid any oversights.

Benefits of choosing Sprinto include:

• A comprehensive, automation-focused compliance management platform that seamlessly fits your business.
• Ready-made, extensive, yet customizable compliance programs meet your audit objectives and business goals.
• A well-structured, time-bound compliance sprint plan aligns with clear outcomes and your compliance objectives.
• On-demand expert advice for quick progress, consistency, and diligence.
• A trusted network of legal advisors, tooling vendors, and security auditors, completing the compliance loop efficiently. 

Interested? Get on a call with us to know more!

FAQs

1. What is the security responsibility of SaaS vendors?

The security responsibility of SaaS vendors is that they should be responsible for the infrastructure for application security.

2. Who is liable for the data security in SaaS?

Data security in SaaS is not the responsibility of one person. This is because the security of SaaS, which is a shared responsibility of all users, has to be upheld. That is why employee security training plays a key role in the SaaS security checklist.

3. Why is SaaS more secure?

Strong authentication measures could be one of the most important reasons why SaaS is more secure. Compared to other industries, SaaS has the right technology and best practices in place with on-premise applications.

4. Who Benefits from SaaS?

SaaS services different types of audiences, including IT professionals and personal users. The SaaS applications spectrum ranges from personal entertainment, such as Netflix, to sophisticated IT tools. For individuals, SaaS products are actually very common to be sold in both the B2B and B2C markets.