It’s no secret that companies ranging from start-ups to multinational corporations use numerous SaaS products as a critical part of their day-to-day operations. Long gone are the days where App2App connectivity and permissions could be tracked in a spreadsheet; with so many moving parts, monitoring SaaS apps and their accompanying security challenges has grown far more difficult. Throw into the mix rapidly-shifting compliance standards by industry, alongside backend and internal changes to SaaS programs that clients may not be notified about, and you’ve got a whole lot to track and monitor.
The good news is that developing excellent SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) can ensure that your business stays in compliance, protects sensitive data, and makes the most of all its SaaS.
“…developing excellent SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) can ensure that your business stays in compliance, protects sensitive data, and makes the most of all its SaaS.”
A Stellar SSPM is Now Mission Critical. Here’s Why:
Your company’s security posture sets the tone for how potential threats and risks are mitigated within your organization. Policies aimed at both SaaS monitoring and standardizing the security status of everything from networks, systems, as well as plans for an agile reaction if something goes off the rails, are part of your security posture.
But you also need to develop a security approach specifically for your SaaS estate. An enterprise’s SaaS Security Posture Management is its strategy for mitigating the myriad of risks and challenges specifically stemming from internal SaaS app usages. SSPM is focused on monitoring SaaS applications, their usage, configurations, and their current and potential impact on an organization’s security.
“The most common form of cloud security failure can be traced to a misconfiguration of some kind.” says Colby Proffitt, a cybersecurity strategist. “To complicate matters further, across the wide array of SaaS applications on the market — and there are more than 40,000 [sic] — there exists no standardized mechanism for configuring security features or even a standardized vocabulary to describe them.”
When companies use SSPM, they can “verify they have configured the application correctly and securely, and ensure their configuration is aligned with best practices and in compliance with well-known regulations. If any issues are found, SSPM also assists with the remediation.”
The explosion of SaaS has forever changed where and how critical information is stored within an enterprise. With so much sensitive data, from user logins to trade secrets, easily accessible within SaaS apps, SaaS monitoring and security has become a very important priority. That’s not to mention that this data is often subject to legal regulations, so failing to embrace a robust SaaS monitoring solution is simply not an option in today’s landscape.
Already have a CSPM in place? That’s great, but it’s not the same thing as having an SSPM. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is specifically aimed at maintaining compliance and automating security within the cloud. CSPM deals with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) on the backend, meaning your hosted environment, whereas software-focused SSPM applies to your SaaS applications.
A solid SSPM ensures that your enterprise stays in compliance. It helps you take a proactive, rather than a reactive, approach towards reducing the chances of a security breach. Your SSPM can prevent costly and time-wasting misconfigurations, and aids in reducing unnecessary permissions. In short, SSPM has the power to take some of the burden off security leaders and regulate security and compliance efforts around SaaS applications, as well as saving time and resources.
What Does an Excellent SSPM Need to Have?
The most important element for a truly effective SSPM is extensive discovery. You need a big-picture overview of the entirety of SaaS activity in your organization, and the tool you choose to monitor SaaS applications in your business should cover all your bases, from A to Z. That means real time monitoring of all apps, no matter how major or minor, at all times.
“The most important element for a truly effective SSPM is extensive discovery.”
All permissions given within your organization should be accessible and visible via your SSPM tool, including any deviations from the norm that could point to user inconsistencies. App2App connectivity should be constantly on your SSPM’s radar, especially considering API changes and the complicated nature of these apps’ interactions with each other. Monitoring of legacy sharing is crucial too, as permissions and connectivity between veteran apps can often end up overlooked.
An abundance of incoming information means that it can be challenging to gauge what needs immediate action and what can be shifted lower down the task list. So you need a tool that can help you make sense of the data coming your way. Your SSPM should provide an analysis and prioritization of issues that’s not only easy to use, but easily understandable for users.
An advanced SSPM tool provides your security leaders, who should be monitoring any SaaS breaches or alerts, a valuable addition to their arsenal. Remediation of pressing issues and automation, which ensures that alerts and actions won’t slip through the cracks, should be included within your SSPM.
Finally, user experience is critical for an SSPM tool that your teams will actually use. An intuitive dashboard that makes SaaS monitoring by app, user, or as easy as a few clicks encourages users and teams to stay engaged with the solution.
Why Choose Wing Security’s SSPM?
From a straightforward user dashboard to an comprehensive, big-picture overview that streamlines everything from sorting risks by urgency to zoomed-out perspective on App2App connectivity, Wing Security’s SSPM tool provides organizations with unparalleled insights and visibility into their SaaS estate.
With easy toggling between apps, users, and an instant look into the state of your organization’s SaaS security, Wing’s solution provides crucial information needed for SaaS monitoring and decision-making that’s displayed in the way that’s most helpful to you.
Always on, ongoing monitoring and automatic remediation ensures that time-sensitive issues are resolved swiftly. Extensive automation features mean that you can put sequences and actions in place, giving you and your security leaders peace of mind that critical alerts won’t end up abandoned or forgotten.
Curious to learn more about how Wing Security can help your organization develop and implement an SSPM that works with you? Get in touch with us here and schedule a demo.
