In the past decade, enterprise software deployment has undergone significant changes. Traditionally, businesses used to deploy Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) software on their on-premises hardware. However, this method is now outdated as most companies prefer cloud-based solutions. Software epitomizes this trend as a Service (SaaS), which provides a more flexible, cost-effective, and innovative way of deploying software.
While SaaS has many advantages, like reducing operational costs and speeding up innovation by eliminating outdated technology, among others, it also brings its unique security challenges. Indeed, leading cloud providers such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or Amazon Web Services offer strong services, but security still needs much attention.
Although SaaS simplifies cloud adoption for businesses, it also introduces significant risks, as its online delivery model makes it a prime target for cyberattacks. Alarmingly, approximately 43% of organizations utilizing SaaS solutions have experienced security incidents due to misconfigurations. This highlights the critical need for robust measures to secure SaaS applications and protect sensitive data.
What Is SaaS Security?
SaaS security protects data within SaaS apps from threats by monitoring and maintaining their safety against cyber-attacks. As organizations rely more on cloud-based IT infrastructures because they are efficient and scalable, the need for strong measures against this risk grows.
Data safety in cloud-based applications refers to security measures that service providers and their clients can implement. Service providers should ensure they put necessary controls in place, while customers should also be involved in risk mitigation. Adequate SaaS security is vital in managing SaaS environments, reducing risks, eliminating shadow IT, and meeting the compliance requirements of different regulatory bodies.
Most firms run in multiple clouds, but most operate within them. In contrast, others work exclusively in one provider’s environment where different types, such as public, private, or hybrid clouds, may be used concurrently. While numerous benefits are associated with this model, such as lower costs and better performance, some risks include but are not limited to non-compliance with regulations, insecure APIs, potential misconfigurations, etc. Because they often store sensitive data like payment card details and personally identifiable information (PII), SaaS applications become attractive targets for attackers, so securing them is imperative.
Why Is SaaS Security Important?
The popularity of SaaS has increased due to its flexibility, efficiency, and scalability. However, this growth in demand also brings several security challenges for providers and customers alike. There are several reasons why strong SaaS security should be ensured:
• Compliance: Failure to comply with security regulations and standards can lead to legal problems, so it is always essential to maintain them.
• Data Protection: Effective SaaS security helps protect against cyber-attacks & data breaches, thereby safeguarding sensitive information.
• Customer Trust: Establishing robust measures builds confidence among clients towards service providers, which is vital for sustaining long-term business relationships.
• Avoiding Consequences: Adequate security prevents severe outcomes, such as legal liabilities, reputational damage, or customer loss, that may arise due to weak protection mechanisms.
Best Practices for SaaS Applications to Secure Data
Following best practices when protecting your applications and data through SaaS security is crucial. Here are eight key strategies that you should consider:
Monitoring & Logging
Every access attempt into your environment, whether successful or not, should be monitored and logged. Also, tracking changes to data can help prevent breaches and provide valuable insights for future security planning.
Encrypt Information
Cloud applications can’t be secured by traditional methods such as firewalls only. Sensitive data must be encrypted, and the keys must be appropriately managed. Transport Data Encryption (TDE) protects it during transit, but further precautions like using Transport Layer Security (TLS) for other transfers through HTTP or FTP should be taken to guarantee complete security.
Identify and Map your SaaS Data
Knowing where your data is at any moment is crucial in securing SaaS. Top priorities should be identifying, classifying, mapping, and monitoring securely discoverable, classified, mapped, and monitored data in use, in motion, or at rest. Additionally, tracking down and protecting shadow data that may easily slip under the radar but present significant hazards should not take a back seat in SaaS development.
Better Authentication Methods
The correct authentication methods must be adopted to control entry into SaaS services. Different vendors offer varied levels of support for integration with identity providers like Active Directory (AD). Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) adds more security layers, while single sign-on (SSO) solutions tethered to AD ensure uniformity in account and password policies across all services.
Efficient Controls Over Identity and Access Management
Identity verification tools and access management systems play a critical role in safeguarding against unauthorized use of Cloud Computing Applications by users whose identities cannot be authenticated. Integration between IAM systems provides better access control, where administrators can keep track of who accessed what and when—this is very important for maintaining safety measures around these kinds of environments.
Stay Visible at All Times
Visibility across all areas where Software As a Service has been employed should never be compromised, even one bit. This means that you will need to look for logs from service providers showing how secure their offers were during specific Persian and the security tool’s output, which might have relied on the CASB approach. Monitoring forms an integral part of the risk management plan, thus ensuring the safe use and adoption of SaaS throughout the organization.
Security Posture Management (SSPM)
To avoid vulnerabilities that may arise during SDLC, software development life cycle. This reduces misconfigurations and helps enforce data safety at different levels throughout the cloud environment, ensuring all areas are equally transparent by using SaaS Security Posture Management methods to automate this process. SSPM can speed delivery while maintaining the high-security levels required for application systems operating within cloud computing platforms.
Security First Software Development Life Cycle Implementation
Building secure applications on top of IaaS platforms requires integrating security into each phase involved when creating them; otherwise, if overlooked during certain stages or missed entirely, it could lead to an insecure foundation being laid down, which later would become very costly both financially and reputation-wise. Therefore, Developers should always focus on making their solutions more robust by considering threats that may pose risks against availability, confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, non-repudiation, etc, among many other concerns related to safeguarding sensitive information assets residing under SaaS environments.
Conclusion
These best practices in SaaS application development cannot be overlooked. With the growing popularity of SaaS environments, securing them becomes vital for user data and business continuity.
At Zorbis, we have extensive experience developing secure SaaS applications for businesses across various industries. Our team has helped numerous companies bring their SaaS concepts to life while ensuring the highest levels of security.
