How to Tackle the Top SaaS Challenges of 2023

Feb 24, 2023The Hacker NewsCybersecurity Webinar / SaaS Security

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

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^[3]
and take the first step towards a safer, more secure future for
your business.