The Ultimate SaaS Security Checklist [Downloadable Tool]

We’ll get right to it. The link to the Ultimate SaaS Security Checklist is right here.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, this article will help IT leaders understand why it’s crucial to improve their SaaS security requirements today and how this checklist can be used to do so.

Importance of SaaS Security

SaaS applications bring incredible agility, flexibility, and productivity to organizations. They are also quickly becoming one of the biggest threats to the security. Over 55% of security executives saying they experienced a security incident in the SaaS environment over the last two years, according to a Cloud Security Alliance Survey.

While it may be tempting to believe that security challenges to SaaS services are minimal because of the protections put in place by providers, they actually provide cyber attackers with more attack vectors. Check out the below security concerns:

Biggest SaaS Security Threats

Data Breaches: As advanced as a vendor’s security may be, they are at risk of breaches that can compromise all of their customer’s data.
Phishing: Sophisticated campaigns, aided by AI, are underway by attackers to trick end users into handing over credentials, bypassing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and other access controls.
Account Hijacking: Attackers will attempt to gain user credentials stolen from other SaaS vendors to catch users reusing passwords.
Weak Authentication: Some vendors make MFA or single-sign-on (SSO) optional, leaving accounts more vulnerable to unauthorized access.
Insecure Interfaces and APIs: Outdated code, unpatched software, and poorly- developed APIs can create wide openings for attackers to access and siphon off data.
Employee Terminations and Access: Terminated (and potentially disgruntled) employees can have access to dozens of different SaaS services making it difficult to rescind access to all of them quickly.
Zero-day Threats: Unknown security vulnerabilities, malware, and other attacks can occur that allow access to vital data.
Insider Threats: Malicious actors inside of SaaS companies with god-like access to all customers' data can do incredible damage.
Shadow IT: What is undisclosed can’t be protected. Employees storing company data on unauthorized SaaS services present a risk, because there’s no oversight over access controls.
Lack of Transparency and Control: These threats are amplified by the lack of visibility and transparency businesses have regarding SaaS vendors security practices and protections. Customers have to trust that their SaaS providers are doing everything they can to protect their data. With each company using an average of 137 SaaS apps, that’s probably not true for all of them.

Overview of the SaaS Security Checklist

Despite the lack of transparency from SaaS vendors, IT leaders can still take some measure of control by comparing security policies and features during the evaluation stage of any SaaS service contract negotiation or renewal.

This essential checklist will help you evaluate the security posture of current vendors and provide a set of criteria to evaluate new ones. It is broken down into vendor security capabilities, internal capabilities and processes.

Vendor Security Capabilities

The first section of the checklist focuses on vendor capabilities, specifically when it comes to security practices, certifications, compliance mandates, access controls, managing unauthorized access, encryption, data protection and logging.

Internal Capabilities and Processes

The next section focuses on the business’s internal processes to ensure all necessary steps have been taken to protect accounts and data by focusing on specific items. These include the ability to backup SaaS data, ensuring identity and access management features are enabled, users are trained on best practices, and dormant accounts are removed.

The guide can be shaped to each business’s individual needs by simply adding additional rows with additional capabilities. This is the best SaaS security checklist to start strengthening your SaaS security posture.

How SaaS Security Checklists Work

A regularly-used SaaS security checklist will ensure SaaS security best practices are being followed and improve the security environment.

The best way to use the checklist is at least a yearly or bi-yearly review of all SaaS services used, to capture any changes in SaaS security policies or feature updates. SaaS services are constantly evolving so it’s a good idea to keep up-to-date with their capabilities, especially if they enhance their access controls.

Using it consistently will help protect sensitive customer and employee data, maintain compliance with regulatory standards, and help prevent data loss that could lead to business disruption.

A review with the checklist assists in identifying which services are storing business-critical data like software development files and source code, to ensure they're protected by the most stringent security and are included in business continuity plans.

(Summary of Tool)

This checklist assists IT leaders in evaluating and enhancing their security measures, focusing on areas like security certifications, compliance, access controls, encryption, data protection, logging, backup, identity management, user training, and account management. Regular use of this checklist ensures adherence to SaaS security best practices, helping to prevent unauthorized access, protect sensitive data and maintain regulatory compliance.