As the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market grows three times faster than on-prem and business operations move to cloud-based platforms, organizations are facing new exposure to cybersecurity threats.
Medium to large enterprises deploy hundreds of SaaS applications across departments, using these platforms to handle and store sensitive data. A typical SaaS stack includes business-critical SaaS apps such as Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Workday, Slack, Teams, Zoom, GitHub, and ServiceNow.
In parallel, cyber attack vectors are becoming increasingly sophisticated. SaaS applications have become a prime target for threat actors seeking opportunities to steal data via tactics such as password sprays, stolen credentials, phishing campaigns using social engineering in corporate environments, and malware attacks.
When SaaS apps are not properly configured, the environment becomes susceptible to exploitation across attack vectors. Identity-centric threats are especially vulnerable in SaaS applications that have both human and non-human identities to secure.
While SaaS vendors are responsible for providing the security settings necessary for enterprises to harden environments, SaaS security is ultimately a shared responsibility. It’s the customers who must ensure that the configurations and settings comply with the organization’s policies and procedures, and continuously manage applications to prevent configuration drift.
Additional security challenges unique to SaaS environments include the volume of configurations, apps, users and their devices, and often the lack of security team visibility into these areas.
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Democratization of SaaS security
A complication unique to the SaaS environment is that the application owners/admins don’t always sit in IT. More often, they are managers sitting in the various departments of the organization such as marketing, sales, finance, and research and development.
These managers, responsible for setting the app permissions and RBACs, are not cyber experts or aware of all of the dangers involved in weak configuration.
From the security team perspective, they do not know the various SaaS application environments in depth, and are limited in their ability to implement the necessary changes.
This democratization of SaaS security makes it critical for security teams to be able to get visibility and control of the settings and configurations of SaaS applications in an organization, as well as to be able to detect Shadow Apps. Unauthorized GenAI usage, for instance, is a growing cybersecurity threat and these apps are often outside the view of the security team.
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How enterprises are securing SaaS applications
Security teams today are deploying a range of methods to ensure data security in SaaS applications.
Manual checks are deployed by some organizations as well as a long list of existing tools for cloud security such as CSPM, CASB, SASE, CNAPP, and CWPP.
Yet, these tools and techniques have some blind spots with regards to SaaS security.
SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) is the emerging technology specifically developed to automate monitoring of SaaS applications within an organization.
The benefit of SSPM compared with other methods is the depth and breadth of visibility and control the security team achieves into the SaaS stack. This includes the ability to detect third-party apps, and visibility into SaaS identities and permissions, including life cycle management.
Among the alternative solutions, it’s worth noting that CASB is the solution most often used for SaaS security today. Existing for over a decade, and continually adapting to meet the needs of cloud and SaaS security, CASB has many limitations vs. SSPM, such as:
- The different configurations and security settings in each SaaS application cannot be covered without extensive customization.
- CASBs normalize policies across an organization’s cloud network. However, this approach is inadequate when dealing with diverse SaaS applications that require SaaS-specific rules.
- CASB lacks the ability to adapt and address evolving SaaS characteristics and threats.
- CASB looks at the app “from the outside,” causing it to miss user behavior nuances.
- Integration complexity: CASBs require a proxy, API connections, and considerable cost and effort for each application that it integrates with.
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SSPM making life easier for security teams
Leading enterprise apps are highly sophisticated, each built with a complex set of security settings. As a result, organizations’ SaaS stacks can have thousands of security settings to manage, a task that requires a high level of sophisticated automation.
A recent SaaS security survey conducted by the Cloud Security Alliance found wide gaps in the ability of security professionals using SSPM to manage SaaS security compared with companies that use other methodologies.
Overall, enterprises using an SSPM, capable of conducting routine and automated security checks into SaaS configurations, are finding it much easier to manage SaaS security, according to the CSA survey that was commissioned by Adaptive Shield.
SSPM users reported no or low difficulty with managing misconfigurations (56% vs. non-users 24%), monitoring third-party applications (52% vs. non-users 24%), governing identity security (56% vs. non-users 30%), and managing risk from devices (50% vs. non-users 33%).
In addition, SSPM users had an easier time securing applications following M&A activity (57% vs. non-users 26%) and could easily align their configurations with compliance standards (52% vs. non-users 27%).
In the cybersecurity community, across all industries, the benefits of SSPM are being widely recognized. According to the survey, 65% of organizations are currently using or planning to deploy an SSPM solution within 18 months.
Final thoughts on the future role of SSPM
The rapid adoption of SaaS applications is presenting a challenge for organizations to keep their ecosystems safe from security breaches. Each SaaS platform is different, requiring a cybersecurity approach that can look at the entire ecosystem through a centralized lens.
SSPMs were designed specifically to secure SaaS applications while working in partnership with application administrators.
Perimeter monitoring is increasingly falling short as cybercriminals are going for the weakest links in the SaaS chain, with an increasing focus on vulnerabilities in human and non-human identities.
The spiraling stack of SaaS applications in enterprises is driving the necessity for a zero-trust approach to SaaS cybersecurity that can be achieved through SSPM.
As inventive threat actors aggressively target attack vectors deep within the SaaS ecosystem, security teams must adopt updated strategies that can cover all bases. SSPM can provide a comprehensive and holistic approach to prevent and detect threats in the SaaS environment, enabling organizations to continue to embrace the SaaS revolution and transform business.
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