Securing your SaaS apps in 2020: 3 pillars you can’t neglect

In 2010, cloud computing just started to lead the IT revolution. It’s 2020 and the cloud is already mainstream. If you’re not running your business in virtual yet, you’re missing out on huge profit opportunities and capabilities that the cloud has to offer. Adopting a cloud strategy brings better security, increased stability and overall greater flexibility for your organization.

While cloud expansion is progressing steadily, SaaS adoption continues to increase as well. In 2020, SaaS will remain the largest segment of the cloud market, with services expected to grow to 116 billion because of subscription-based software and the scalability potential. SaaS adoption is indeed widespread and security implications related to this segment just cannot be neglected. 

In this article, you will learn: 

• The importance of SaaS security (for you and for your customers)
• How to approach securing your SaaS tools 
• Some of the use cases you should pay attention to
• How Sumo Logic can help you in the process

The importance of SaaS security

According to Markets & Markets, a typical mid-market company of 1000 employees uses about 150 SaaS tools, yet many of those businesses don’t have the right security mindset required to keep the entire infrastructure safe. 

SaaS security is complex because of the shared responsibility model offered by the cloud. Cloud providers secure the infrastructure, but securing what you keep in the cloud is entirely your responsibility. That includes your SaaS tools as well. You can find out more about the shared responsibility model here. 

A cloud native tool is by far the best solution for securing your SaaS apps. About 85% of organisations surveyed by Gartner declare they will use a cloud security tool to secure their SaaS apps and the public cloud infrastructure. The CAGR for this segment is estimated at 37%, making it the top growth in IT spending among those companies. Our security tool is the best solution for your SaaS apps and we explain why further below. 

Why your customers care about SaaS security

As much as 76% of organizations experience a damaging incident in the last two years, according to Ponemon Threat Report, but what’s even more worrying is the fact that Gartner reports 95% of all cloud security incidents will be the customer’s fault! The most common reasons?

1. Misconfiguration:
   73% of companies have at least one critical security misconfiguration (Threat Stack Research).
2. Unprotected or weak passwords:
   63% of data breaches were due to hackers using weak, default or stolen passwords (Verizon Data Breach Report).
3. Poor visibility:
   Usually only 4% of alerts are investigated and users claim they get too many alerts, events and incidents.

Securing your SaaS tools: the essential 3-pillar approach

When it comes to securing your SaaS tools, you should think about securing the three dimensions of the cloud: 

1. User behavior
2. Admin behavior
3. Data Security

1. User behavior

You need to have the full visibility of who, when, where, why and how in relation to every incident. In order to do so, set and monitor controls to secure users as stated in your shared responsibility model. 

Monitor them especially for the following activities:

• Anomalous user behavior
• Anomalous access behavior
• Suspicious access from multiple locations
• Failed or successful logins

2. Admin behavior

To keep your SaaS apps secure, you need to be able to see all admin activities, as well as any configuration changes.

Monitor them especially for the following:

• Privileged access abuse
• Actions from compromised accounts
• Changes and drifts in configurations

3. Data Security

Ensure the right data is accessed by the right users. Again, set and monitor controls to secure data as stated in accordance with the shared responsibility model. 

In particular, monitor for the following:

• Accessing data by users, devices and locations
• Data exfiltration

Why secure your SaaS apps with Sumo Logic?

Our Cloud SIEM solution is by far the best option for securing all your SaaS apps. Here’s why:

Full-stack SaaS apps visibility

Traditional tools are no good for securing your users and data for threats and misconfigurations in SaaS apps. Cloud SIEM Is the best fit for the cloud security stack, including SaaS.

Sumo Logic allows you to look at all the top SaaS apps and their use cases in a single view. This would be almost impossible with any traditional SIEM or tool that you may have.

It also clearly displays the the activities of a compromised account or malicious user...

… and allows you to see who is accessing what data and from where.

Built with the shared responsibility model in mind

The shared responsibility model states that you’re responsible for users and data. Sumo gives you full visibility into your users’ behavior and data security. With our solution, fragmented tools, false positives, too many alerts, big data issues or unused machine data will no longer be your problems.

Comes with a pre-built content and use cases for apps

The pre-defined content will help you set security controls, monitor for configuration drifts and policy violations in your business-critical SaaS apps. This means you get security and compliance visibility for O365, SFDC, Box, GSuite, Slack and many others. It’s quick to deploy, easy to learn and effective to use. 

It’s actually a unified tool for IaaS, SaaS and Hybrid

Whether it’s IaaS, SaaS or Hybrid, a cloud native tool is the best for securing all of them. Without complete visibility, you will not be able to automate detection and response of threats, misconfigurations and violations. Sumo integrates your hybrid and multi-cloud security. You no longer need to worry about the journey to SaaS and the security of hybrid apps.

What do our customers say about Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM and its impact on their SaaS apps and cloud infrastructure? 

✓ Incident response time reduced by 60%

✓ Detection time of security incidents dropped by 85%

✓ $2M cost savings on major issues

✓ Average payback time of six months

Our SIEM solution simplifies security. It offers significant risk reduction in compliance, reduction of costs and assures secure cloud migration.  

Key takeaways:

• Adopt the right mindset: securing the SaaS apps is entirely your responsibility!
• The right approach involves securing all three pillars: user behavior, admin behavior and data
• Cloud native solutions, such as Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM offers the highest security across your entire cloud infrastructure. It’s a unified tool for security, compliance and config for SaaS.