Software as a Service (SaaS) applications are growing fast. Many businesses are using SaaS products on a daily basis so it’s crucial that cyber security is on top form. With cyber crimes increasing, now more than ever is the time you need to be questioning the security measures in place on your SaaS applications.
To successfully protect your SaaS application, it’s important to be devoted to spending time on putting security measures in place. Educating yourself and employees on the security threats and vulnerabilities that can affect a SaaS application is crucial. You are then able to identify the problematic areas of an application and specifically watch out for vulnerabilities that can affect the specific area.
It has been recorded in 2020 that 43% of data breaches are on cloud-based web applications (SaaS). Let’s talk about the risks and what you can do to protect your SaaS application to avoid becoming a cyber victim.
Biggest SaaS Security Risks:
- Data Breaches – This is one of the most common threats of SaaS applications is losing data which can violate the GDPR. This could result in a fine issued by the ICO, negative PR around the application giving a bad reputation and losing customers. Make sure that security measures are complying with GDPR. See our email breach checker to where data has been leaked.
- Insider threats – Disgruntled employees can pose a threat by causing malicious damage to an application. Ensuring strict policies and monitoring employees activity can help prevent this threat. Having a procedure in place for off – boarding employees securely is important. You should delete authorised logins and change shared passwords. Internal pen-testing will limit the attack vectors for insider threat actors.
- Source Code – Developers can work on laptops from source code stored locally. Laptops can be stolen or lost if out of the office. Policies of safe storage and hard drive encryption can avoid loss of source code. Source code security audits can help identify security risks.
- Phishing – Attackers can gain access to corporate credentials through phishing campaigns and other data breaches. Staff training should be provided, enforce strong password policies and setting up 2FA can help mitigate against this. Phishing simulations can help protect against attacks.
- Security Misconfiguration – Failing to implement security controls when developing an application can lead to vulnerabilities being exploited by attackers. They often attempt to exploit unpatched flaws to gain unauthorised access to the application. A web app penetration test can discover any misconfigurations on an application before any cyber criminals.