SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms are an essential part of the daily workflows of millions of users, with widespread adoption of these tools becoming standard at companies operating in nearly every sector and industry.
These solutions allow employees to collaborate, share information, and access data quickly, streamlining operations and boosting efficacy.
But SaaS use also includes a number of security challenges, which companies must address, or risk facing serious consequences to their bottom lines and brand reputations.
What is SaaS Data Protection?
SaaS data protection is the practices that keep a company’s sensitive data secure within their SaaS platforms, including the steps taken by enterprises to ensure their information is not accessible to unauthorized users or the public.
These steps and practices often encompass internal policies around sharing, automated solutions that detect data leakage, regular reviews of shared data by IT and IS teams, and more.
How SaaS Data Protection Works
Many SaaS Data Protection solutions work by discovering and identifying sensitive data that has been shared, and flagging potential over-permissions, exposures, and breaches. These solutions may have automated mitigation features, like blocking shares or sending warning messages each time that sensitive data is going to be shared.
Many of these solutions, however, may fail to pick up on each instance of sensitive data, or incorrectly identify non-sensitive data as needing additional security protection. That’s not to mention that due to the sheer volume of data shared in SaaS apps, it’s impossible for an IT, IS, or Security team to manually keep track of potential sensitive data exposures.
For effective SaaS data protection, companies need to utilize a variety of strategies, including user/employee education, built-in data protection features from their SaaS providers, and third-party tools specifically designed to detect and mitigate data shared within the cloud.
Why SaaS Data Protection is Mission Critical
A data breach that sees public exposure of a company’s sensitive information often results in devastating consequences. From loss of consumer trust in the business, to slowed-down sales, damage to investor relations and interest, and even legal consequences, a SaaS data breach can cause irreparable harm and permanent damage to an organization.
Oftentimes, an investigation by regulators following a SaaS data breach may find that a company did not take adequate steps to protect their customers’ data. Those authorities may levy heavy penalties due to organizations’ failure to comply with regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA.
From start-ups to multinational corporations, data breaches pose an enormous risk to companies of all sizes. Financial services giant Morgan Stanley was slapped with a whopping $60 million punitive fine by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) due to the potential exposure of some 15 million customers’ personal data.
Credit agency Equifax was fined $575 million for “failure to take reasonable steps to secure its network” after exposing the personal and financial details of some 150 million people. Despite an available patch, Equifax neglected to fix a critical vulnerability in its SaaS infrastructure, then failed to let victims know in a timely manner that their information had been leaked.
In another incident, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) penalized Epic Games with a $520 million fine for various data protection failures, which resulted in a data breach that exposed its users’ personal information.
SaaS Data Protection: Common Challenges
There are a number of issues that make securing SaaS data a complex challenge for many organizations. Some of the main challenges facing enterprises when it comes to SaaS data protection include limited visibility into sensitive data exposures, misconfigurations, and configuration drift.
The average company uses dozens of different SaaS applications on a daily basis, all of which have their own levels of security settings, authorized users, and built-in security features. Business-critical information and sensitive data are shared throughout these platforms, making it extremely complicated to locate where potentially crucial information is exposed.
Individual users often have significant control when it comes to the privacy and sharing settings within SaaS apps or assets. Additionally, as organizations scale, their SaaS platform usage and exposure changes accordingly. A document set to “share with everyone at the company” might have originally granted access to only 15 users - but years and many employee hires later, the number of people who can view that asset has swelled into the hundreds or thousands.
SaaS data assets are exceptionally easy to share. That is by design; a primary draw of SaaS is the ease of collaboration and seamless workflows. If protecting data means that workflows become more cumbersome, that defeats the point. The challenge is finding a way to protect SaaS data without disrupting business productivity.
Best Practices for Securing SaaS Data
There are a number of steps organizations should take to ensure that their SaaS data is protected. Adopting the following best practices can help companies take ownership of their SaaS data and control potential exposures.
Implement a SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) solution
If you’re not already using one, rolling out a strong SSPM solution is critical for any cloud-based organization. The term SSPM refers to a security strategy specifically for SaaS solutions. Traditional security strategies and solutions aren’t sufficient for covering the unique risks created by SaaS use, so establishing a strong SSPM is crucial for protecting your company and data.
An SSPM solution is a third-party tool that helps you gain full visibility and ownership of your SaaS security, including the sensitive data shared within your SaaS apps. These solutions help businesses stay on top of all potential data exposures, unusual user behavior, and other SaaS data security risks.
Establish robust Authentication and Identity Access Management (IAM) policies
Your Authentication and IAM policies act as critical safeguards for your company’s SaaS apps and the sensitive data within them.
Many companies operate as though all users in their cloud are inherently trustworthy. This can prove to be a serious mistake in the event that a bad actor has managed to obtain an authorized user’s credentials - or if an authorized user decides to misuse his privileges. Zero-trust authentication policies, like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), provide an additional layer of protection to confirm that trusted users in your SaaS apps are actually who they claim to be.
IAM policies define which users have permissions to perform specific actions. For example, an IAM policy could restrict changing privacy settings within apps to only users with Admin privileges. Your IAM policies should grant the least privileges and permissions possible to the average user, with the ability to make changes within apps strictly for senior members of your IT, IS, or Security teams.
Focus on SaaS-specific data protection
SaaS applications come with their own unique set of security challenges, and traditional security solutions geared towards on-prem or non-cloud protection will not be sufficient for safeguarding your SaaS data. Organizations operating in today’s digital landscape need solutions that are specifically tailored to SaaS data protection.
This may look like utilizing built-in security features within your SaaS apps, ongoing monitoring of data sharing and potential exposures, and leveraging a third-party solution to help your IS and Security teams stay on top of all your SaaS data.
Because so much data is shared within these apps, with hundreds or thousands of authorized users, you’ll need a solution that gives you full visibility into every location your data is shared.
Review your SaaS apps for security
Many SaaS apps come with features aimed at protecting your data, but the truth is that not all of these apps follow the same standards when it comes to safeguarding data. Some apps - such as those that grant third parties access to your data - are inherently riskier than others.
You should review all of your SaaS apps for their security and privacy certifications, as well as ensuring that any vulnerabilities within these solutions are swiftly patched. You may discover that, unbeknownst to you, employees are using SaaS solutions with a history of data breaches and security failures.
If that’s the case, you may need an automated remediation solution that can both deactivate problematic third-party apps and also prevent their reinstallation.
Embrace automated alerts for user access and sharing
Due to the high volume of data, endlessly expanding list of users (including those outside of your company, such as third-party collaborators and external contractors) and the fluid nature of SaaS itself, you need a solution that provides you with automated alerts around risky user behavior.
Look for a solution that can recognize the difference between standard user behavior and patterns that could indicate nefarious intent. These tools may leverage AI or Machine Learning in order to determine whether or not unusual actions should be marked as a red flag.
SaaS Data Protection Compliance Considerations
Beyond safeguarding your company from the embarrassment of a public data leak, embracing SaaS data protection is crucial for ensuring that your organization remains in compliance with the data privacy laws in your jurisdiction.
From HIPAA to GDPR, there are dozens of country and state-specific regulations requiring companies to protect their customers’ sensitive data. If your organization is found to be non-compliant with these requirements, you may be subject to harsh penalties, including punitive fines and even legal consequences.
Data protection compliance must be a high priority for your organization, rather than an afterthought. That means taking proactive steps to ensure that your company data is protected, and that your organization strictly adheres to the data protection rules applicable to your sector and industry.
The Future of SaaS Data Protection: What to Expect
As consumer awareness around data privacy grows, we can expect to see more laws and regulations regarding the protection of customer information. According to a recent Gartner report, an increasing number of jurisdictions are rolling out new, even stricter rules around how companies use and protect their client data. For example, organizations now have to consider how data is protected both when it is stored and when it is in transit.
Gartner also cites data sovereignty as an emerging trend that will soon become a major part of the data protection landscape. Due to high-profile data breaches, along with geopolitical instability and world events, companies are now seeking to have ownership over their data that isn’t dependent upon a third-party app or solution.
Businesses are working towards independence from cloud service providers, seeking to maintain their autonomy for critical business assets and operations. Organizations are investing more in developing and maintaining their own data storage solutions, which create additional considerations for data protection.
FAQ
How does SaaS data protection differ from traditional data protection?
SaaS data protection is tailored specifically for cloud-based assets, whereas traditional data protection is focused on safeguarding on-prem data. Generally speaking, SaaS data protection often requires a cooperative effort between the cloud provider and the company using its services. The responsibility for traditional data protection of on-prem resources lies exclusively with the business.
Additionally, traditional SaaS data protection usually requires a company to invest in upfront costs like hardware and maintenance. Cloud-based data protection typically operates on a subscription-based model, with companies not paying for infrastructure costs such as hardware or software.
Are there specific regulations for SaaS data protection?
Yes, there are numerous region-specific regulations for SaaS data protection, depending on the countries where your business operates, where your clients are located, and your industry. In some highly-regulated sectors, such as healthcare and finance, there may be additional data protection requirements that your business is obligated to follow, on top of local law.
What are the most common SaaS data protection risks?
There are several common risks associated with sensitive data in SaaS apps.
Data breaches are a serious challenge, as bad actors may attempt to obtain trade secrets, financial information, or customers’ private information from within an organization’s cloud. Whether the cybercriminal is an external actor or an insider threat, the risk of a data leak or breach stemming from the cloud is a very real concern.
Shadow IT, in which employees use SaaS apps that aren’t screened or authorized by their company, is also a majorhallenges facing companies when it comes to SaaS data protection, as is sensitive data access permissions granted unnecessarily to users.
How do SaaS providers ensure data protection?
Most SaaS providers offer various built-in data protection features within their apps. However, these tools often aren’t robust enough to provide the level of protection a company needs to keep their critical data secure and remain in compliance with local and sector-specific data protection requirements.
For strong SaaS data protection, organizations need to leverage a third-party SaaS security solution that’s specifically focused on preventing data leaks and breaches.
Meet DoControl - The #1 Multi-Layer SaaS Security Solution
DoControl empowers you with full visibility into all your company data shared within your SaaS applications. Our platform provides a holistic, big-picture overview into your instances of data exposures, authorized users, and vulnerabilities within your cloud, giving you critical control over where and with whom your company’s most sensitive data is shared.
DoControl’s integrations with mission-critical SaaS apps means that you can secure all your business assets shared within your SaaS ecosystem and accessed by both your employees and third-party collaborators.
With DoControl, you’ll obtain crucial ownership over and data loss prevention for your sensitive data, via future-proofed, granular data access control policies that restrict specific files from being accessed by unauthorized parties, monitor the data sharing of connected third-party apps, detect and remediate over-permissions, and more.
Our solution provides automatic remediation and mitigation options, along with smart prioritization. The platform’s unique understanding of typical user behavior means that you won’t be bombarded with endless alerts: DoControl differentiates between normal business communications and suspicious activity, so you’re alerted only in the case of risky sharing or other unusual patterns that raise red flags.
Talk to us today to learn more about how our SaaS data protection solution can help you take ownership of your SaaS data, protecting your critical data and brand reputation, as well as ensuring compliance with data protection requirements in your region and industry.
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