SaaS is a cloud computing model in which software applications are provided and hosted by a service provider and accessed by customers over the Internet. Organizations that utilize SaaS services need to implement controls to ensure they are consuming the technology in a secure manner.
Saas Security Platform (SSP) is defined as a suite of centralized security controls to protect data and applications in complex SaaS environments, consolidating threat models and addressing a wide range of SaaS security-related use cases from a single vendor. As SaaS adoption and utilization continue to trend upward, malicious actors will leverage these applications and services to carry out attacks.
SSP solutions are event-driven and agentless (powered by APIs and webhooks), and feature integrations to provide an optimal approach to securing complex SaaS environments. Given the decentralized nature of SaaS, a holistic view is necessary to administer, provision, enable access, secure identities and resource types, discoverability and management of SaaS mesh, discoverability and remediation of configuration drift. SSPs like DoControl will help organizations uphold their end of shared responsibility.
Critical Capabilities for SSP
1. Data Access Controls: Essential to prevent unauthorized access to SaaS applications and data, establishing policies based on individual users, groups, and domains based on the level of risk they introduce allows for the enforcement of least privilege access at a more granular level. Enforcing consistent access control policies ensures only authorized users can access sensitive resources, mitigating the risk of data overexposure and exfiltration.
2. Misconfiguration Protection: SSP solutions provide misconfiguration functionality that manages and secures access to SaaS applications, detects policy violations, and provides manual and automated remediation to ensure compliance with internal policy.
3. User Activity Monitoring: Monitoring and auditing user activities in SaaS-to-SaaS applications is crucial for detecting and mitigating insider threats, unauthorized access attempts, and suspicious behavior. User activity logs, session monitoring, and behavior analytics help identify potential security risks within the SaaS estate.
4. Threat Detection and Response: SSP solutions should include advanced threat detection and prevention mechanisms to identify and mitigate security threats. Alerts should provide actionable intelligence and potential remediation paths, and avoid alert fatigue. This may involve real-time monitoring, behavior analytics, anomaly detection, and integration with threat intelligence sources.
5. Data Loss Prevention (DLP): SaaS DLP features enable organizations to monitor, detect, and prevent the unauthorized transmission or exposure of sensitive data. SaaS DLP solutions help enforce data protection policies, prevent data leakage, and ensure compliance with data privacy regulations.
6. Shadow IT/Application Governance: SaaS applications feature unused high permissions, vulnerable (i.e. reported breached), abandoned, high data exposure; introducing unnecessary risk imposed by both sanctioned and unsanctioned applications. Enforcing strong governance over SaaS Shadow Apps ensures secure interoperability and centralized security management.
7. End User Engagement: In order to avoid hindering the business, SSP solutions should engage with business users to find the appropriate balance between security and business enablement. Performing data access reviews, managerial approvals, application justification processes, and organizational policy violation notifications (i.e. via email or Slack/Microsoft Teams) are optimal approaches to support this effort.
8. Compliance and Regulatory Support: SSP solutions support compliance with relevant regulations (i.e. GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc.) specific to the industry. Compliance features include data access controls, audit logs, data residency options, and data retention policies.
SaaS applications often store sensitive and confidential information, including customer data, intellectual property, and financial records. Failure to adequately secure data can result in breaches, ultimately leading to financial loss, reputational damage, and potential legal repercussions. SaaS applications are accessible from anywhere, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals and malicious actors.
Without robust security measures, unauthorized access, data theft, or malicious activities become likely. Additionally, compliance requirements and data protection regulations necessitate stringent security measures to avoid non-compliance penalties. Prioritizing the security of SaaS applications and data will help ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, enabling organizations to operate safely in the digital landscape.
Get Familiar with SSP
Security leaders responsible for enterprise security should leverage the “Buyer’s Guide for SaaS Security Platforms (SSP) Guide” to better understand the critical capabilities to address top SaaS security threat models through an emerging, and continually evolving SSP market.
About DoControl
DoControl is an agentless, event-driven SaaS Security Platform (SSP) that secures business-critical SaaS applications and data. DoControl helps organizations expose their SaaS risk, remediate it quickly, and automatically remediate over time through granular, no-code workflows. DoControl’s SSP uncovers all SaaS users, third-party collaborators, assets and metadata, OAuth applications, groups, and activity events. DoControl helps reduce risk, prevent data breaches, and mitigate insider risk without slowing down business enablement.
To learn more about DoControl, visit www.docontrol.io, read the DoControl blogs, or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Media ContactCompany Name: DoControlContact Person: Christine CastroEmail: Send EmailPhone: 9788527484Address:333 West 39th St #403 City: New YorkState: NY 10018Country: United StatesWebsite: https://www.docontrol.io/
