Is SaaS a Threat or a Boon to Cybersecurity?

Among the specific security issues CISOs are worried about, according to a UK government cybersecurity study, are misconfiguration of SaaS access that hackers could take advantage of, difficulties in integrating SaaS platforms in their security efforts and difficulties in keeping up with SaaS platform changes, among others. Overall, 94% of companies surveyed were “moderately to extremely concerned” about SaaS and cloud usage overall, while 69% were “not confident at all” about their ability to defend their firms from those threats. And as new services are introduced, more employees use more SaaS more often—greatly expanding the opportunities for bad actors. Based on all this, no one could blame a CISO for eschewing SaaS as much as possible.

But solutions are emerging. Artificial intelligence—machine learning, neural networks and other advanced data analytics solutions—could help. While they can’t control the threats coming from SaaS platforms, they could help control the impact and reduce the blast radius of those threats.

For instance, if a malware payload makes its way onto an organization’s servers where sensitive data is stored, the automated system will issue an alert, enabling security teams to quickly mitigate the damage. Along with advanced localized network security, CISOs should set policies for employees using SaaS, requiring that they frequently change authentication information and API data—and implement additional security, such as 2FA—for all work-related online accounts on all platforms. Advanced data systems can help here, as well, by automatically informing employees when keys need to be rotated; automated rotation tools can also be implemented, enabling security teams to use their time more efficiently.

Use Discovery Tools

In addition, security teams need to keep abreast of changes in the organization’s human resources systems, shutting down SaaS accounts when employees leave, move to different departments or no longer use SaaS platforms in the context of their jobs. Teams can also use discovery tools to map all SaaS services, enabling them to discover vulnerabilities that could be compromised, as well as gain full visibility of all SaaS services used in the organization. The first step to developing a comprehensive SaaS security is answering the question “What do I have?” Only then can CISOs take the appropriate actions.

SaaS can make work easier for everyone; it’s easy, convenient and low-maintenance, with all updates and feature development and maintenance the responsibility of the platform provider. But when it comes to security, nobody is perfect. All it takes is one breach to ruin an organization. With the right systems and policies, CISOs can ensure that those breaches don’t come via SaaS platforms.

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