In a SaaS-driven enterprise, your biggest security risk may not come from inside—it often starts with a third-party integration. That’s why organizations increasingly rely on third-party risk management software to gain real-time visibility and control over connected apps. Increasingly, attackers exploit integrations that bypass procurement and security checks. These include tools employees install without oversight, browser extensions, and vendor platforms with persistent backend access. These integrations often operate outside traditional network and endpoint controls, hiding in overlooked permission layers. Left unmonitored, they linger with excessive access, increasing the attack surface through misconfigurations, over-permissioned tokens, and a lack of continuous visibility.
Third-party SaaS integrations now account for a significant portion of identity-related incidents. In a 2022 breach involving Twilio, attackers gained access through a trusted third-party vendor with deep integration into Twilio’s systems. Once inside, they accessed internal tools and customer data, impacting downstream services including Signal and Authy, exposing personally identifiable information (PII) for over 200,000 users. The attacker leveraged over-permissioned OAuth tokens that were never revoked, even after the integration was no longer in active use.
The longer you wait to address these risks, the more time threat actors have to take advantage. And with threat actors increasingly automating the discovery and exploitation of such connections, reaction time is no longer a luxury.
Third-party risk management software (TPRM) isn’t just about checking a box before an audit. It’s your front line against a fast-growing threat: identity-driven attacks via third-party SaaS apps.
What is third-party risk management software?
Third-Party Risk Management software enables security and compliance teams to identify, evaluate, and mitigate the risks introduced by external vendors, especially those integrated into your SaaS stack. Unlike traditional governance, risk and compliance (GRC) tools or spreadsheet-based approaches, this software provides automated, continuous monitoring of third-party behaviors, configurations, and access levels.
What makes third-party risk management software distinct from other types of security tools is its specific focus on non-employee actors that interact with your cloud environment. While endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools focus on devices, and identity and access management (IAM) platforms center on user authentication, TPRM tools fill the gap around external applications and vendors with persistent or privileged access to your SaaS ecosystem. It understands the structure of API integrations, OAuth authorizations, and third-party service connections, and provides controls that are specific to those external relationships.
Traditional security tooling often assumes a perimeter-based model or focuses on internal assets. But SaaS has no perimeter. TPRM software offers visibility into the sprawling and often invisible landscape of vendor relationships, monitoring both the presence and behavior of connected apps in real time. This includes:
- Tracking the exact access scopes granted to third-party apps: ensuring you know precisely what data and capabilities each integration can access, including sensitive or high-privilege functions
- Highlighting vendors with elevated privileges or broad data access: surfacing those with access to customer data, financial systems, or admin-level controls that require closer scrutiny
- Detecting risky behavior patterns or permission changes: alerting your team to unusual access activity, sudden scope escalations, or unauthorized changes that could indicate compromise
Static reviews and manual tracking are no longer sufficient
SaaS ecosystems are dynamic and decentralized, which means that new tools can be connected without centralized oversight. It also means that OAuth permissions can be granted with a single click, often without the user fully understanding what level of access is being given. These integrations can persist unnoticed, even after the app is no longer actively used, creating lingering vulnerabilities. Manual processes like email approvals or quarterly vendor assessments are simply too slow to detect and mitigate emerging risks.
Modern third-party risk management solutions continuously monitor SaaS environments and automatically detect new or changed integrations. For example, imagine an employee installing a new third-party document signing app that integrates with your primary CRM. As soon as the integration is established, your TPRM platform detects the new connection, analyzes the OAuth scopes requested by the app, and flags that it has both read and write access to sensitive customer records.
A contextual risk score is generated based on the app’s vendor reputation, permission level, and access location. Simultaneously, an alert is routed to your SOC team via your SIEM tool, and the integration is added to your access review dashboard for ongoing monitoring. This automated detection-to-response workflow enables your team to assess and act on potential risks within hours, not weeks, of the integration occurring.
Wing Security’s SaaS discovery and third-party access visibility features are designed to give SOC teams full visibility into this risk surface, allowing them to act before a weak link turns into an incident.
Why third-party SaaS risk is growing
SaaS apps are easy to adopt, but every new integration, every OAuth approval, is a potential backdoor. Unlike traditional software deployments, SaaS tools can be onboarded by individual employees without going through formal procurement or security review processes. With a few clicks, a user can grant third-party apps broad, persistent access to email, file storage, calendars, CRM platforms, and more.
Organizations now use hundreds of SaaS apps, and many allow third-party integrations by default. According to Gartner, Inc., by 2026, 80% of workers will regularly use tools powered by third-party APIs, many of them integrated into SaaS platforms. That means your SaaS ecosystem is not just your responsibility, it’s part of your attack surface.
From a technical standpoint, this introduces several challenges. OAuth grants often request far more access than necessary, including read/write permissions, offline access, or access across all user files. Once granted, these permissions can remain valid indefinitely unless explicitly revoked. Many organizations lack centralized logs or alerts for these integrations, so they go unmonitored for months.
That means the average business has little insight into:
- Which apps are connected to core SaaS systems
- Who approved them
- What data they can access
- Whether those permissions are still needed or are being used
In 2023, file transfer software MOVEit was breached due to a vulnerability that allowed SQL injection. This gave attackers access to MOVEit’s database, impacting organizations in multiple industries, most notably in education. The National Student Clearinghouse, a victim of the breach, said that nearly 900 educational institutions across the U.S. had records exposed, affecting more than 51,000 individuals. Other education-sector organizations were impacted, as well: retirement services company TIAA, which works with thousands of colleges and universities, said that a third-party vendor was breached, further exposing personally identifiable information.
This is why vendor security risk management must focus on visibility and control, not just vendor assessments. Real-time discovery, permission audits, and automated risk scoring are no longer nice-to-haves. Instead, they’re necessary components of modern SaaS defense.
Gaps in vendor security risk management
There are three critical gaps in most third-party risk strategies: they stem from a misalignment between the speed of SaaS adoption and the legacy processes many organizations still rely on. These gaps weaken a company’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to risks introduced by external vendors. As a result, many security teams are left with limited visibility, delayed response times, and siloed accountability when third-party risks escalate.
1. Static reviews instead of real-time monitoring
Most organizations conduct third-party reviews on an annual or quarterly basis. That might have worked in the on-prem world, where vendors had limited access and change was infrequent. But in the SaaS era, app connections happen continuously, often without centralized oversight. An employee can authorize a new third-party app during their lunch break, and that app could be exfiltrating sensitive data by the end of the day.
Static reviews don’t capture these risks because they only provide a point-in-time snapshot. Making matters worse, by the time a spreadsheet or security questionnaire is completed, the risk landscape may have already changed. OAuth tokens may have been escalated, integrations could have been updated with new permissions, or unused access could be lingering, unmonitored.
Security professionals need dynamic visibility to track when access is granted, how it is used, and whether risk profiles evolve. This means real-time alerts on new integrations, continuous permission monitoring, and behavior-based risk assessments that surface high-risk changes as they happen. Without this, your third-party risk management strategy will always be reactive and incomplete.
2. No access-level or identity context
Knowing which vendors you work with is step one. But do you know:
- What permissions do they have? For example, does the app have read-only access to calendars or full administrative privileges over email, storage, or customer records?
- Whether they have access to customer data or production environments? Look for direct connections to systems like CRMs, billing platforms, or cloud storage that contain sensitive or regulated data.
- If those access levels have changed? Check whether a previously low-risk integration has escalated its privileges or been updated with broader scopes without appropriate review.
Modern third-party risk management software integrates with your identity provider and SaaS platforms to surface that context, so you can prioritize based on real risk.
3. Disconnected security, IT, and procurement workflows
Often, security, IT, and procurement operate in separate lanes with limited communication, which introduces delays and inconsistencies in risk evaluation. Procurement may greenlight a vendor based on pricing and business functionality without visibility into the vendor’s security posture. Meanwhile, security teams are often brought in too late, such as after contracts are signed or access has already been granted, forcing them into reactive rather than preventative roles.
This lack of coordination results in vendors being onboarded without a full understanding of the risks they introduce. Worse, when an issue arises, there’s often no unified workflow for revoking access or initiating a reassessment. Security teams may lack context about why a vendor was approved, what access was granted, or who owns the relationship.
Effective third-party risk management depends on breaking down these silos. TPRM software should integrate into ticketing systems, procurement platforms, and identity providers to ensure vendor security is assessed as part of the onboarding process. A strong TPRM guide should define workflows that notify security when new vendors are proposed, enforce access reviews at regular intervals, and provide shared dashboards so all stakeholders can track vendor status in real time.
What to look for in modern third-party risk management solutions
You need more than a checklist. Effective third-party risk management software must be built for the complexity of SaaS environments. Unlike legacy tools, it should provide continuous oversight, context-aware analysis, and tie directly into identity and access layers. Wing Security, for example, scans SaaS environments for third-party connections, whether authorized or not, and correlates them with identity and usage data to give teams a complete, actionable view of vendor risk.
Comprehensive SaaS discovery
Identify all third-party integrations, including shadow apps and unused tools still holding access. Solutions like Wing Security offer autonomous discovery, so you don’t have to rely on self-reporting.
Risk-based scoring
Not all third parties are equally risky. A vendor with read-only calendar access is not the same as one with write permissions to your CRM. Look for third-party risk management software that uses contextual risk scoring to help prioritize what matters most.
Misconfiguration detection
Third-party apps often request excessive permissions. Misconfigurations, such as unrevoked OAuth tokens or overbroad access scopes, open the door for exploitation. Your TPRM tool should alert you to these issues in real time.
Access management controls
Monitoring is just the first step. Effective third-party risk management solutions must provide strong control mechanisms that allow security teams to act on risk signals in real time and proactively reduce the attack surface.
- Revoke risky or unused third-party access. The system should allow security teams to immediately cut off access to apps that pose a threat, are no longer needed, or have become dormant. For example, Wing Security provides automated remediation workflows that flag stale integrations and give teams the option to remove them with a single click.
- Set up policies for least privilege access. Security teams should be able to define and enforce granular access policies that limit third-party permissions to only what’s necessary. These policies may include restricting write access, enforcing token expiration, or limiting access to specific datasets.
- Receive alerts when new vendors are added without approval. When a new third-party integration is detected, especially if it bypasses procurement or security review, your TPRM solution should generate an immediate alert and provide a full risk profile so teams can respond before exposure grows.
Third-party access should be treated like internal access. If you wouldn’t give a contractor admin rights to your internal systems without review, why allow an external app to do the same?
Why your TPRM can’t wait for the audit
The Verizon DBIR 2025 found that third-party and supply chain incidents accounted for 30% of breaches, double the previous year, with identity misuse and OAuth token abuse among the top methods. A third-party risk management audit might help you tick compliance boxes, but it won’t protect you from fast-moving SaaS threats. Audit cycles are slow. Threats evolve in real time.
By the time an auditor reviews your vendors, attackers may already be exploiting unmonitored access. Threat actors increasingly target weak identity links and misconfigured third-party integrations.
To stay ahead, your vendor security risk management process needs to:
- Operate continuously, not periodically: Continuous monitoring detects new integrations, permission changes, and anomalies in real time, closing the gaps left by periodic reviews. Wing Security, for example, scans SaaS environments continuously to surface new app connections and risk indicators.
- Include SaaS-native visibility and access context: TPRM solutions should integrate with identity providers and SaaS APIs to correlate users, roles, permissions, and access patterns. Wing Security does this natively, giving teams visibility into which apps are connected, who is using them, and whether access aligns with policy.
- Align teams around shared, automated tools: Centralized dashboards, automated alerts, and integrations with SIEMs and ticketing systems reduce friction across teams. Wing Security enables this alignment with role-based access and shared views, so security, IT, and procurement stay on the same page.
This is where Wing Security excels. Our platform continuously discovers third-party integrations, evaluates access scopes, and helps SOC teams take swift, informed action.
Don’t wait for the audit. Take control now.
A modern SaaS stack demands modern security practices. That includes real-time, identity-aware third-party risk management software that can keep pace with the scale and speed of SaaS adoption.
If you’re still managing vendor risk with spreadsheets, siloed approvals, and annual reviews, your organization is exposed. Instead, adopt third-party risk management solutions that:
- Discover and evaluate third-party apps continuously
- Provide access-level insights
- Integrate seamlessly into your existing workflows
For a closer look at how Wing Security can help secure your SaaS supply chain, explore our third-party access visibility tools and SaaS discovery capabilities.