SaaS Security Best Practices for Modern Organizations

Most modern organizations run on SaaS applications, and many use them to store sensitive data. The global SaaS market reached a total value of $206 billion in 2023, and is expected to climb to $247 billion by the end of 2024. Organizations must employ a complex system of practices to keep their SaaS apps secure and their data safe. Because SaaS apps are delivered through the cloud, they must be managed and secured differently than other types of software. Let’s explore the five most important SaaS security best practices every organization should prioritize company-wide.

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The importance of SaaS security protocols

Because they are not limited to a specific physical location, SaaS apps present unique security challenges. Some of the most common SaaS security risks include:

• Misconfigurations: Incorrect settings can introduce vulnerabilities that allow for breaches, leaks, and other types of cyber attacks.
• Non-compliance: Not only can non-compliance result in data breaches and other attacks, it can also lead to legal issues and hefty fines from regulatory bodies.
• Data breaches: Once an attack has occurred, unauthorized access, disclosure, and theft can all wreak havoc on an organization.
• Insider threats: Users with authorized access to an organization’s SaaS apps can leak information or usher in other bad actors, intentionally or unintentionally.

The best way for organizations to keep their SaaS apps secure is to proactively develop a SaaS-specific security strategy. With protocols to prevent, detect, and mitigate breaches, everyone on your security team will be prepared to deal with any potential threat. At the same time, everyone throughout your organization will be empowered to do their part to maintain a robust security posture. These are the best practices that should be present in every organization’s SaaS security strategy.

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5 SaaS security best practices to know

While securing your organization’s SaaS apps can depend entirely on your network architecture, cloud specifics, service providers, and more, there are certain fundamentals that every organization should know. Here are five of the most important SaaS security best practices that will help protect your cloud-based platforms.

#1: Inventory your SaaS apps 

Because SaaS apps can dramatically impact how a business works, an organization might swiftly go from just one or two apps to 12 or 15, and each app might climb from just a few users to hundreds. Shadow IT is also a creeping problem, as employees install SaaS apps that they hope will improve their productivity or efficiency without first receiving the proper approvals from their security teams.

That’s why the first step toward securing your SaaS architecture is discovering and evaluating the apps in use at your organization. Mapping out the scope of your SaaS apps will give you a better sense of what you’re dealing with so you can develop the right strategies for managing them securely. Conduct a thorough inventory, monitor data usage, and prioritize the most important apps that enable business continuity.

#2: Implement a zero trust strategy with detailed access controls

A zero trust approach demands verification at every stage of an interaction. Instead of trusting access requests based on existing patterns, zero trust requires every access request to be verified regardless of where it originates or whether it has been verified in the past. In addition to a mindset of “never trust, always verify,” the zero trust strategy also relies heavily on the principle of least privilege. This demands that access is only granted to strictly necessary resources for highly specified windows of time.

Access control is another critical component of zero trust. By limiting access to role-based, attribute-based, or dynamic rules, security teams can more effectively manage the flow of data. Identity and access management (IAM) policies enforce these rules organization-wide, ensuring that access controls are consistent and thorough. It’s important to regularly review user permissions and update them as necessary. 

#3: Use multi-factor authentication and single sign-on

The process of gaining access to a SaaS app also impacts overall security. By unifying a number of SaaS apps under one set of credentials, single sign-on (SSO) systems eliminate the hassle of managing distinct usernames and passwords for every single app they interact with in a day. Managing dozens of sign-on combinations isn’t just a headache, it’s also a security risk. Writing passwords down and sharing them with users are both common practices that create new threat vectors for attackers to exploit. 

Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) is another tool that can strengthen your organization’s SaaS security posture. MFA requires users to provide multiple forms of identification before they can gain access to an application. This limits the risk associated with simple username and password credentials, which can more easily be compromised or leaked. MFA and SSO both make it more difficult for unauthorized users to gain access to the application, system, or network.

#4: Integrate specialized SaaS security management tools

It’s also a good idea to implement specialized tools that can enhance your security posture. SaaS security posture management (SSPM) tools, for example, are designed to secure SaaS apps and protect sensitive data either stored in or moving through the cloud. SSPMs enforce your organization’s unique security policies across all the SaaS platforms and vendors you work with. Managing configurations from this point of oversight helps keep every SaaS application in its desired state, and alerts your security team when something is misconfigured or particularly vulnerable.

Cloud access security brokers (CASB), on the other hand, work closely with SSPMs to protect your SaaS architecture. That’s because CASB tools are more closely dedicated to managing and enforcing user access policies in the cloud. While many SaaS tools offer their own role-based security settings and features, CASBs add further controls and create a layer of consistency across all the SaaS apps your organization uses. CASBs allow for greater visibility and control over SaaS data and usage patterns in the cloud. Integrating SSPM and CASB tools into a unified strategy is a powerful way to enhance your organization’s overall cloud security posture.

#5: Develop advanced threat intelligence and analyze network behavior

The better your security team can detect and identify threats, the more effectively they can thwart serious security incidents and stop breaches from occurring. The earlier you can identify a threat, the better you can mitigate it and remedy the vulnerability that made the incident possible. User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) is an important piece of the threat detection puzzle, because having a better understanding of what constitutes normal user behavior makes it easier to detect anomalies and prevent threats. 

Instead of waiting for a breach to occur and scrambling to solve the problem after the fact, organizations should build threat intelligence into their SaaS security protocols. That will remove as much friction as possible from the remediation phase and make it easier to leap into action immediately to protect the system when a threat, vulnerability, or breach is detected.

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SSE technology provides a holistic approach to SaaS security

Implementing a security service edge (SSE) solution allows organizations to take a holistic, organized approach to implementing SaaS security best practices. SSE solutions should help organizations protect against internet threats, enable secure and dynamic access to all SaaS apps, and protect data wherever it lives in or moves through the cloud. Data is spreading across cloud apps quickly in today’s SaaS-enabled business world, so protecting that data and securing the apps that keep modern organizations afloat is a critical priority. Join one of the weekly Lookout SSE Hands-on Labs to learn how to build your own data-centric SSE solution and design a robust SaaS security posture that minimizes risk and protects your organization’s SaaS architecture.