How to Tackle the Top SaaS Challenges of 2023

Are you prepared to tackle the top SaaS challenges of 2023? With high-profile data breaches affecting major companies like Nissan and Slack, it’s clear that SaaS apps are a prime target for cyberattacks.

The vast amounts of valuable information stored in these apps make them a goldmine for hackers. But don’t panic just yet. With the right knowledge and tools, you can protect your company’s sensitive data and prevent cyberattacks from wreaking havoc on your business.

To better prepare and effectively safeguard your organization, it is crucial to have a comprehensive understanding of the potential entry points and challenges within the ever-evolving SaaS ecosystem.

Breaches of 2023#

Two of the most notable breaches to happen so far have been that of Slack/Github and Nissan North American.

Slack/Github#

The new year started with breaking news about Slack’s GitHub repositories being breached where some of Slack’s private code repositories were downloaded. Slack began investigating the detected breach after noticing suspicious activity, and determined that stolen Slack employee tokens were the source of the breach. This breach demonstrates how crucial it is for organizations to secure their repositories and the sensitive data they store.

Nissan North America#

In mid-January, Nissan North America informed its customers of a data breach that occurred at a third-party service provider. The security incident was reported to the Office of the Maine Attorney General, and it disclosed that almost 18,000 customers were affected by the breach. The vendor had received customer data from Nissan to use in developing and testing software solutions, which was inadvertently exposed due to a poorly configured, cloud-based public repository. The unauthorized person had likely accessed data, including full names, dates of birth, and Nissan account numbers. This breach demonstrates how organizations granting external vendor access are increasing their vulnerability and risk of an attack, and the importance of using synthetic data to mimic real data.

In order to reduce the likelihood of these types of attacks, organizations can learn about the top 5 security challenges anticipated for 2023.

The Top 5 SaaS Security Challenges#

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SaaS Misconfigurations #

Enterprises can have thousands of security controls in their SaaS apps. This presents security teams with one of their biggest challenges – securing each setting, user role, and permission to meet industry standards and the company’s security policy. The challenge is complex, as configurations can change with each app update and compliance with industry standards is more difficult. Additionally, SaaS app owners tend to sit in business departments and are not trained or focused on the app’s security.

SaaS-to-SaaS Access #

SaaS-to-SaaS app integrations are designed for easy self-service installations but they pose a security nightmare. Employees connect third-party apps to enable remote work and improve their company’s work processes. While this is effective in boosting productivity, the increasing volume of apps connected to the company’s SaaS environment creates a challenge for security teams.

When connecting apps to their workspaces, employees are prompted to grant permissions for the app to access. These permissions include the ability to read, create, update and delete corporate or personal data, not to mention that the app itself could be malicious. By clicking “accept,” the permissions they grant can enable threat actors to gain access to valuable company data. Users are often unaware of the significance of the permissions they’ve granted to these third-party apps.

Device-to-SaaS User Risk #

Accessing a SaaS app via an unmanaged device poses a high level of risk for an organization. The risk is even larger when the device owner is a highly privileged user. Personal devices are susceptible to data theft and can unknowingly have malware that shares SaaS data outside the organization’s environment. Lost or stolen devices can also provide a gateway for criminals to access the network.

Identity and Access Governance#

Every SaaS app user is a potential gateway for a threat actor. It’s crucial to implement processes to ensure proper users’ access control and authentication settings, in addition to validation of role-based access management (as opposed to individual-based access) and establishing an understanding of access governance. Identity and access governance helps ensure that security teams have contextualized visibility and control of what is happening across every domain.

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)#

Threat actors are increasingly targeting SaaS applications through their users. As more data shifts to the cloud, they are an attractive target that can be accessed from any computer with the right login credentials. To protect against these types of attacks, organizations need to adopt SaaS identity threat detection and response (ITDR) mechanisms. This new set of tools is capable of identifying and alerting security teams when there is an anomaly or questionable user behavior, or when a malicious app is installed.

Gaining Full SaaS Ecosystem Security #

To truly secure SaaS data, security teams need to address the entire ecosystem surrounding the application. That means reviewing endpoint security of devices that access the system, monitoring user access for suspicious and anomalous behavior patterns, utilizing an SSPM, like Adaptive Shield, to measure each application’s security posture, and develop identity threat detection & response (ITDR) capabilities within the SaaS landscape.

Once organizations take these steps, they will better prepare themselves and mitigate their SaaS attack surface.

For more on handling the SaaS security challenges, sign up today for our upcoming webinar and take the first step towards a safer, more secure future for your business.

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