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All You Need To Know About SaaS Security
All You Need To Know About SaaS Security

August 30, 2021

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The SaaS or Software-as-a-Service industry is growing tremendously. Also, the experts say that the industry will be valued at over $60.36 billion by 2023.  Most businesses have either adopted a SaaS model or are planning to do so. SaaS can reduce cost and increase scalability effortlessly. However, one thing to remember is that it is also very prone to cyberattacks. So, it is vital to dedicate some resources and time to SaaS security.

SaaS security essentially involves the protection of client privacy and sensitive data in subscription based-cloud services. SaaS applications are a goldmine of sensitive data that is at arms reach for a large number of people. Without proper protection in place, you could end up dealing with a cyberattack.

Why is SaaS Security Important?

Let’s look into some of the reasons why SaaS Security is so important:

  1. Shared Responsibility: Both the provider and the user are equally responsible for securing SaaS. So, the user has to make sure data, operating systems, and software stacks are secure. On the other hand, the SaaS provider takes care of the infrastructure, physical security, virtual machines, etc.
  2. Cloud Service Protocols: SaaS security will help you comply with cloud service protocols like ISO-27001 or GDPR. These are set by various organizations to protect sensitive data. This will help you increase customer/user trust and decrease the odds of a cyber attack.
  3. Access: SaaS applications are built in a way that they can be used from any location. This includes public WiFi and corrupt devices. As a result, your SaaS application is put at risk of a cyberattack.

How Can You Enhance SaaS Security?

1. Data Deletion

Data deletion is not the easiest task. However, some regulations like GDPR require it as part of keeping customer data safe. Data deletion policy must be clearly mentioned in the agreement between the client and your organization. And there must be a way to wipe clean customer data after the retention period.

2. Virtual Private Cloud or Virtual Private Networks

Encourage the use of Virtual Private Cloud(VPC) or Virtual Private Networks(VPNs) among clients for their operations and data storage. Doing so increases accessibility as one can access the SaaS application from any location. It is also a safer alternative as compared to multi-tenant systems.

3. SaaS Security Audits

Conducting security audits is like your cardinal duty. It helps enhance security and uncover any vulnerabilities or weaknesses. While doing so, you have got to check everything on the SaaS considerations list. The audit involves reviewing your code, application deployment, data security, assessing customers, and so much more.  You will also have to educate and train your employees regarding good security practices. To conduct security audits, you can either invest in automated tools or hire security experts or a reputed penetration testing company to do the job for you.

4. Encryption

Encryption is a popular method of securing data by encoding it so that it cannot be accessed by unauthorized people. We know that getting an SSL certificate ensures that all the interactions between the web server and the user are encrypted. However, this is simply not enough for SaaS. You also need to ensure that the stored data is also end-to-end encrypted. To further enhance security, you can also provide Multi-domain SSL certificates.

5. 2-Factor Authentication

Source: MDPI

Brute force attacks are on the rise right now with over 3,000 attacks per day against small and medium businesses alone. 2-factor authentication or even multi-factor authentication can reduce the chances of being a victim of a brute force attack. 2-FA is significantly better at preventing unauthorized access than the traditional single password authentication method.

6. Identity and Access Management(IAM)

Identity and Access Management can be done easily by creating user groups or roles for different access levels. This way you can grant the same permissions to a group of people. While granting permissions, you have to make sure to give only the required permissions and nothing more.

7. Data Loss Prevention

Data loss prevention or DLP is a bunch of tools and practices that allow you to identify sensitive data while data is being transferred. You can also find APIs that do this. You can configure it with some words or phrases which it uses to identify sensitive data. If the DLP detects any sensitive information in the data in transit it stops it immediately. This prevents data leakage. It can also be configured to notify the admins about the sensitive data and then they can decide whether to stop the data transaction or not.

Conclusion

SaaS is definitely an up-and-coming industry with a lot of advantages. However, they tend to contain a lot of sensitive data that can be accessed by the public. For this reason, SaaS security is very important. Inculcating good SaaS security practices help in the smooth running of your business and it really does go a long way. This post will help you do just that.

 


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Kanishk Tagade
Marketing Manager

Kanishk Tagade is a Marketing Manager at Astra Security. Having a hawk-eyed view on the cybersecurity threat landscape, market-shifts, and hacktivism activities, Kanishk is a community member of the Nasscom and corporate contributor at many technology magazines and security awareness platforms. Editor-in-Chief at "QuickCyber.news", his work is published in more than 50+ news platforms. He is also a social micro-influencer for the latest cybersecurity defense mechanisms, Digital Transformation, Machine Learning, AI and IoT products.

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