In enterprise, it’s not unusual to take a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-first strategy. It is smart—there’s no have to take care of the infrastructure, administration, patching, and hardening. You simply activate the SaaS app and let it do its factor.
However there are some downsides to that strategy.
The Drawback with SaaS
Whereas SaaS has many advantages, it additionally introduces a bunch of recent challenges, a lot of which don’t get the protection they warrant. On the high of the record of challenges is safety. So, whereas there are some very actual advantages of SaaS, it’s additionally necessary to acknowledge the safety threat that comes with it. After we speak about SaaS safety, we’re not often speaking concerning the safety of the underlying platform, however quite how we use it.
Keep in mind, it’s not you, it’s me!
The Shared Accountability Mannequin
Within the phrases and circumstances of most SaaS platforms is the “shared accountability mannequin.” What it often says is that the SaaS vendor is answerable for offering a platform that’s sturdy, resilient, and dependable—however they don’t take accountability for a way you employ and configure it. And it’s in these configuration adjustments that the safety problem lives.
SaaS platforms typically include a number of configuration choices, reminiscent of methods to share knowledge, methods to ask exterior customers, how customers can entry the platform, what elements of the platform they’ll use, and so forth. And each configuration change, each nerd knob turned, is the potential to take the platform away from its optimum safety configuration or introduce an sudden functionality. Whereas some purposes, like Microsoft 365, provide steerage on safety settings, this isn’t true for all of them. Even when they do, how simple is that to handle while you get to 10, 20, and even 100 SaaS apps?
Too Many Apps
Have you learnt what number of SaaS apps you’ve? It’s not the SaaS apps you realize about which might be the difficulty, it’s those you don’t. As a result of SaaS is so accessible, it could actually simply evade administration. There are apps that individuals use however a corporation will not be conscious of—just like the app the gross sales crew signed up for, that factor that advertising and marketing makes use of, and naturally, everybody desires a GenAI app to play with. However these aren’t the one ones; there are additionally the apps which might be a part of the SaaS platforms you join. Sure, even those you realize about can comprise further apps you don’t find out about. That is how a mean enterprise will get to greater than 100 SaaS purposes. How do you handle every of these? How do you guarantee you realize they exist and they’re configured in a approach that meets good safety practices and protects your data? Therein lies the problem.
Introducing SSPM
SSPM may be the reply. It’s designed to initially combine together with your managed SaaS purposes to supply visibility into how they’re configured, the place configurations current dangers, and how you can handle them. It can regularly monitor them for brand spanking new threats and configuration adjustments that introduce threat. It can additionally uncover unmanaged SaaS purposes which might be in use, consider their posture and current threat profiles of each the appliance and the SaaS vendor itself. It centralizes the administration and safety of a SaaS infrastructure and the place its administration and configuration current threat.
Overlap with CASB and DLP
There’s some overlap out there, significantly with cloud entry safety dealer (CASB) and knowledge loss prevention (DLP) instruments. However these instruments are a bit like capturing the thief as he runs down the driveway, quite than ensuring the doorways and home windows had been secured within the first place.
SSPM is yet one more safety software to handle and pay for. However is it a software we want? Nicely, that’s as much as you; nevertheless, our use of SaaS, for all the advantages it brings, has introduced a brand new complexity and a brand new set of dangers. We’ve so many extra apps than we now have ever had, a lot of them we don’t handle centrally, and so they have many configuration knobs to show. With out oversight of all of them, we do run safety dangers.
Subsequent Steps
SaaS safety posture administration (SSPM) is one other entry into the rising catalog of safety posture administration instruments. They’re typically simple to check out, and plenty of provide free assessments that may give you an concept of the size of the problem you face. SaaS safety is difficult and sometimes doesn’t get the protection it deserves, so getting an concept of the place you stand may very well be useful.
Earlier than you end up on the flawed finish of a safety incident and your SaaS vendor tells you it’s you, not me, it might be price seeing what an SSPM software can do for you. To be taught extra, check out GigaOm’s SSPM Key Standards and Radar experiences. These experiences present a complete overview of the market, define the factors you’ll need to contemplate in a purchase order determination, and consider how various distributors carry out towards these determination standards.
If you happen to’re not but a GigaOm subscriber, enroll right here.
