7 Overlooked Cyber Horrors Lurking in Your SaaS Environment
It’s Spooky Season, and Cybersecurity Awareness Month! Just like the haunted houses and ghost stories of October, hidden dangers lurk in our digital environments. While we often fortify our defenses against traditional cybersecurity threats, we may be overlooking something sinister—our SaaS app security.?
Here are seven chilling risks creeping into your SaaS ecosystem—and how to exorcise them before they strike!??
1. SaaS Sprawl: More Apps, More Risk??
SaaS Sprawl occurs when new apps are adopted without IT or security approval. With more employees, departments, and vendors introducing new tools to enhance productivity, it’s almost impossible to keep track of all the apps in use. Each of these unapproved apps can introduce vulnerabilities, especially if they are connected to sensitive business data or employee credentials.??
What You Can Do: Adopt a solution that provides a continuous inventory of apps to gain full visibility into every approved and unapproved app. Savvy’s patented identity security approach surfaces both known and unknown apps, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.??
2. SSO Bypass: The Invisible Backdoor??
Many organizations assume that implementing Single Sign-On (SSO) for core apps means that all applications are covered, but that’s a myth. Users and third-party vendors may bypass SSO through manual login methods, legacy credentials, or weak authentication protocols.??
What You Can Do: Leverage a solution like Savvy to monitor and enforce SSO for all apps. Savvy’s real-time alerts and just-in-time guidance close backdoors, detect anomalies that bypass existing SSO controls and guides users toward proper identity hygiene.?
3. Tech Legacy: Visibility Isn’t Enough??
Legacy Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems can provide a basic inventory of apps but often lack automated workflows to remediate gaps like inactive accounts, outdated permissions, or weak passwords. Visibility is just the first step—without automated action, vulnerabilities will remain unaddressed.??
What You Can Do: Implement a solution with automated workflows for remediation, such as Savvy’s Zero-Touch Integrations (ZTI), which automates enforcement and risk mitigation across every app, whether it's connected to SSO or not.??
4. The MFA Illusion: Not All Apps Are Secured??
It’s easy to assume that every SaaS app is secured by Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). However, even well-regulated environments often have apps left out of MFA requirements, either due to outdated configurations or because they weren’t initially considered critical. This creates a massive vulnerability.??
What You Can Do: Make sure that every app is covered by monitoring for gaps in MFA enforcement. Savvy can prioritize apps based on risk and tier importance, continually monitoring and ensuring all are secured by MFA or other safeguards.??
5. Lack of Credential Hygiene: The Root Cause of Data Breaches??
Credential hygiene involves more than using strong passwords—it includes enforcing regular password updates, preventing password reuse, and identifying toxic combinations like weak credentials coupled with elevated access. When this hygiene is neglected, attackers have an open invitation to breach your systems.??
What You Can Do: Automate the enforcement of identity and credential hygiene practices with Savvy. Use playbooks and just-in-time guardrails to prevent users from making risky decisions that could jeopardize security.??
6. Inadequate Identity Lifecycle Management??
The lifecycle of an identity—from onboarding to offboarding—requires constant monitoring. Leaving old credentials active or failing to adjust access when roles change can open doors for malicious insiders or external threats to exploit dormant accounts.??
What You Can Do: Savvy provides an automated offboarding process that closes gaps left by traditional IGA tools. This process ensures every account is deactivated, and every access point is revoked at the right time.??
7. Vendor Management: The Unseen Risk Factor??
Vendors can introduce new risks if they have access to your SaaS environment without strict controls. Trusting that vendors follow your security practices is a gamble, especially without visibility into their actions and the apps they interact with.??
What You Can Do: Enforce vendor accountability by continuously monitoring their access. Savvy provides insights into every app interaction, detecting unauthorized access attempts or unusual behavior.??
Top 3 SaaS Breaches in 2024 (And How They Could Have Been Prevented)??
MGM Resorts Breach (March 2024)??
MGM faced a massive breach when attackers exploited legacy systems and inactive accounts to access critical systems. An automated offboarding and credential monitoring process could have mitigated these risks.??
OpenAI Incident (June 2024)??
A vendor’s compromised credentials led to the unauthorized exposure of sensitive data. Continuous app and access monitoring would have caught the unusual activity and prevented lateral movement.??
Geisinger Health System Breach (June 2024)?
A terminated third-party vendor employee retained unauthorized access to Geisinger’s patient records. This breach exposed sensitive data like medical record numbers and patient details. Automated offboarding and continuous third-party monitoring could have prevented unauthorized access and protected patient information?
How Savvy Can Keep You Ahead of the Game??
Savvy’s identity-first security solutions go beyond traditional IAM by prioritizing risk and automating enforcement across all your SaaS apps. Whether it’s monitoring for SSO bypass, enforcing MFA, or providing real-time alerts on credential hygiene, Savvy ensures that your organization stays protected.??
Cybersecurity Awareness Month is the perfect time to review your current SaaS security posture and address the hidden risks in your ecosystem. Remember, visibility isn’t enough—it’s time to automate, prioritize, and secure.??
Ready to take the next step? Let Savvy help you build a safer, more resilient SaaS environment today.?Request a demo.