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SaaS Challenges and How to Overcome Them


According to 25% of participants in an IBM study conducted in September 2022 among 3,000 companies and tech executives worldwide, security worries stand in the way of their ability to achieve their cloud-related goals. Nowadays, a lot of organizations think that using the cloud comes with hazards. However, the truth is not quite that dire; if you follow certain security best practices, the cloud may be a safe haven for your data.

Businesses need to have a solid security plan in place to handle their SaaS security concerns if they want to fully benefit from cloud computing. In the first place, what are these worries?

SaaS Challenges

  • Lack of experts in IT security. Companies compete intensely to attract qualified specialists in the tight market for IT security professionals, especially those working on cloud security. In the United States, there are often insufficient skilled workers to cover only 66% of cybersecurity job openings.
  • Problems with cloud migration. A major obstacle to cloud adoption, according to 78% of cloud decision-makers surveyed by Flexera in 2023, was a lack of resources and experience. Inexperience with cloud systems can result in security-compromising migration errors.
  • Insider dangers and data breaches. Regretfully, the largest challenge facing cloud computing is still data breaches. 39% of the firms polled in the 2023 Thales Cloud Security Study reported having data breaches.
  • SaaS enlargement. Some businesses utilize more SaaS technologies than they require. According to BetterCloud, companies used 130 SaaS apps on average in 2022, which is 18% more than in 2021. Managing multiple SaaS apps increases the amount of knowledge and error-proneness that can arise.
  • Adherence to regulations. The technology used in clouds is quite recent. As a result, there may be gaps in some SaaS standards, and industry or national compliance standards are frequently different. Security is compromised when SaaS tools are used that don't adhere to international rules or lack industry standards.
  • Security and certification requirements. To protect client data, SaaS providers must adhere to industry standards like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Although it requires more work for vendors, certifying adherence to such standards is crucial for reducing security threats.

Monitoring Leading SaaS Security Trends

Cyberattacks will cost businesses $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, a 300% increase over 2015, predicts McKinsey. Businesses need to keep up with the latest developments in data security if they want to reduce the risk and expense of cyberattacks. They must adopt a shared responsibility model and cloud-native solutions built with DevSecOps standards to actively manage their SaaS security.


These 6 Ways Will Help in Improving Your Organization's Security Culture


Having a robust security culture is the best way of protecting your organization from security data hacks. This blog will talk about six ways you can follow to foster a strong security culture. 

The average cost to the organization of a data attack went upto $4.45 million in 2023 and will probably rise in the coming time. While we can't be certain of how the digital landscape will progress, making a robust security culture is one step of future-proofing your company. 

If you don't have answers to these questions, you may haven't thought much about the concept. If you're not sure where to start and face this problem, needn't worry. This blog will guide you through what a security culture is and provide six practical tips for improving your organization's security. 

What is security culture and how did it evolve?

There has been much discussion recently about the cybersecurity talent divide and the issues it is causing for organizations attempting to improve their data security. While there is no question that it is an urgent problem, considerably fewer firms appear to be paying close attention to the concept of security culture.

That's unfortunate because building a strong security culture is likely the single most necessary thing you can do to defend your firm against security breaches.

The word security culture relates to everyone in your organization's approach toward data security. This includes aspects such as how much people care about security and how they behave in practice.

Is security a priority for the leadership team? Is data security awareness training an important element of your strategy? Even something as simple as how tightly you enforce laws prohibiting anyone without a staff pass from entering the building contributes to the overall security culture.

We're all busy, and it's easy to overlook security. For instance, how many of us are happy shutting the door behind us when someone else wants to come in? Nonetheless, physical security is a critical component of data security.

6 ways to create a strong security culture for your organization

Creating a strong security culture requires everyone in your company to prioritize it for the greater good. 

1. Conduct regular security awareness training sessions for all workers

The starting point is to develop a training plan. This should not be limited to new employees. While security knowledge must be included as part of the process of onboarding, building a truly strong security culture requires everyone, from the top of the boardroom down, to be dedicated to it.

Start with the basics while building a training program:

  • Data protection and privacy: Everyone, regardless of industry or location, should be aware of their legal obligations under rules such as HIPAA or GDPR.
  • Password management entails the use of password managers as well as other access methods such as multi-factor authentication.
  • Adopting safe internet habits: Recognizing the dangers of downloading content or visiting insecure sites. Remind staff to be on the watch for phishing attacks and to report any questionable emails.
  • Physical security: Creating positive practices, such as having employees constantly lock their computers when they leave their desks.

2. Establish a thorough security policy and set of recommendations

A properly stated security policy is required to get everyone on board. But a word of caution: You must find a balance between the amount of information you include in your security policy papers and the length of time it takes to go through them.

3.Plan for risk mitigation and vulnerability identification

Even in a strong security culture, no one data security solution is flawless, therefore you must maintain vigilance. Fortunately, there are numerous measures you can take to assess your security and discover areas for improvement:

  • Penetration testing is a form of test in which you purposefully attempt to breach your own systems. If you lack the means to accomplish it in-house, there are third-party security businesses that can assist you.
  • The principle of the least privilege: Give staff only the information they need to execute their tasks. This entails being selective about which rights are allowed rather than granting broad access.

4. Install security technologies and perform frequent audits

In many respects, your the company's data is its most important asset. Sadly this implies that there are many people who want to get their hands on it for bad motives. To avoid, you must employ safe equipment with the most recent encryption protocols.

First, assess your present technology stack. Is it as seamless as it could be? It is not usual for separate departments to employ distinct tools, each adopted years previously, to accomplish a specific task. When information is transmitted across systems in an inefficient manner, this might lead to security flaws.

5. Building secure communication channels

  • Moving to a fully integrated enterprise management planning (ERP) solution is one answer to this problem. 
  • When it comes to transforming your company's culture into one that prioritizes security, communicating is key.
  • First and foremost, it is critical to identify who is accountable for each aspect of security policy. Usually, this would include creating a table that clearly lays it out. Cover everything from IT teams dealing with system flaws to particular employees being responsible for the security of their own devices.
  • Next, cultivate an open culture. This can be tough at first because, when a problem arises, many people's first reaction is to assign blame. Although reasonable it is not recommended. Because, if this reaction becomes the norm, it ironically increases the likelihood of a security breach. 

6. Develop protocols for crisis management and incident response

If something catastrophic happens, you must have a plan in place to deal with it. Everyone in the organization should be versed in the strategy so that it can be implemented as fast and efficiently as feasible if the need arises.

Take the following three actions to ensure that your organization is properly prepared:

  • 1) Create an Incident Response Plan (IRP): A defined strategy that specifies which processes should be followed by everyone when a security event happens.
  • 2) Form an IRT (Incident Response Team): Assign particular responsibility for incident management to individuals. To serve every angle, this should include personnel from your legal, communications, and executive teams, as well as IT professionals.




SEC Sets New Disclosure Rules: Read How It Will Revolutionize Organization Cybersecurity


SEC mandates cybersecurity reporting for companies 

The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) latest set of rules on cybersecurity reporting for publicly traded organisation can be understood in two ways. One, as another generic regulatory formality piling on the companies, or second, as an important move towards strengthening cybersecurity in the board. 

In the smaller picture, it is likely to be both. But in the bigger picture, the benefits will outweigh the limitations. The SEC's primary attention on cybersecurity metrics can mix with other financial reporting needs to compel companies toward a more comprehensive security framework that includes asset intelligence and prioritises material risk. 

SEC protocol: Implication for organizations

The new protocol is likely to push organizations to start focusing on asset intelligence on evidence-based security data, and not just merely storing inventory of devices and apps, helping them toward a consistent monitoring and improvement program. 

The rules will also support companies to involve entire organizations in cybersecurity, security, promoting IT confluence, compliance and legal in all the ways that will support every party involved. 

Deep Asset Intelligence: A much needed approach

The scope for an integrated approach to cybersecurity built on evidence-based data highlights various organisations' need for stronger intelligence. The recent cyber attack on Clorox tells us why. Clorox was among the first large organizations to be compromised when the SEC's new rules came into play, asking the company to report the cyber attack through the SEC's Form 8-k within 4 days.

Clorox did comply, however, it had limited information on the impact of the attacks, so it had to file another form 8-k filing. But even so, Clorox didn't disclose the complete financial damage of the attack. 

What do experts think?

Certain cybersecurity experts anticipate that Clorox's response will be common for other businesses due to the challenge of rapidly assessing the impact of an attack. However, incomplete reports may mislead investors.

A thorough understanding of an asset's life cycle, security measures, management style, data usage patterns, and potential end-of-life situations can all contribute to a more accurate assessment of the attack's impact. 
By promoting the use of measurements and statistics based on empirical evidence to evaluate material risk, the new regulations may also encourage businesses to improve their asset intelligence.

The Way Forward For Constant Enhancement

Businesses gather a great deal of security metrics, some of which may not be very valuable. While it may seem commendable to have stopped 9,000 malware attacks in a month, what would happen if there had been 9,008 attempts? 

By concentrating on operational controls and material concerns, comprehensive asset intelligence can assist organisations in focusing on more serious issues. 

An endpoint without a security agent or an outdated, unpatched system, for instance, can be just as hazardous as a network-based vulnerability found on the common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) list. Inventorying all of your users, apps, and devices is not sufficient; you also need to know if the security rules are active and in place.

The guidelines also encourage organisations to involve the legal and compliance departments, as well as the leadership team, in understanding the role that governance plays in better managing security through their reporting obligations.

Furthermore, and this is crucial, they encourage public firms to follow the industry trend of proactive and continuous assessment, which entails not just identifying security weaknesses but also continuously addressing them.

Proceeding Forward

Following its adoption in July and formal implementation on September 5, the SEC's new regulations are still being adapted to by publicly traded corporations. Businesses are required to file yearly reports starting in December and to report "material" cybersecurity incidents within four days, detailing the occurrence and its consequences.

Companies who lack full visibility into their assets, including the condition of security controls on devices and apps across the organisation, may find it difficult to comply with these regulations. They can, however, start to integrate security and compliance with asset intelligence—that is, evidence-based data centred on material risks—and work towards a continuous monitoring and improvement programme that more effectively secures the organisation.


Utilizing an Integrated Approach for Application Security


Among every industry and organizations, application security has emerged as a progressively complex and challenging issue. Over the past few years, the rapid innovation in this field has resulted in the increase of attack surfaces, significantly where firms have shifted to modern application stacks on cloud-based security. Attack surfaces have also been expanded by the increased deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected devices, as well as by new hybrid working patterns. 

The volume and sophistication of cybercrime attacks have sharply increased at the same time, causing concerns inside IT departments. According to the most recent study from Cisco AppDynamics, the shift to a security approach for the full application stack, 78% of technologists believe that their company is susceptible to a multi-stage cybersecurity attack that would target the entire application stack over the course of the following 12 months. Indeed, such an attack might have catastrophic results for brands. 

The major problem for IT teams is the lack of the right level of visibility and insights in order to recognize where new threats are emerging across a complicated topology of applications. More than half of engineers claim that they frequently find themselves operating in "security limbo" since they are unsure of their priorities and areas of concentration. 

IT teams can safeguard the complete stack of modern apps throughout the entire application lifecycle by using an integrated approach to application security. It offers total protection for applications across code, containers, and Kubernetes, from development to production. Moreover, with coupled application and security monitoring, engineers can assess the potential business effect of vulnerabilities and then prioritize their responses instead of being left in the dark. 

Moving to a Security Approach for the Full Application Stack 

In order to improve the organization security, tech experts are recognizing the need for adopting a security strategy for the entire application stack that provides comprehensive protection for their applications from development through to production across code, containers, and Kubernetes. 

Moreover, IT teams are required to integrate their performances and security checks to gain a better understanding of the way security flaws and incidents could impact users and organizations. Tech experts can assess the significance of risks using severity scoring while taking the threat's context into account thanks to business transaction insights. This entails that they can give priority to threats that pose a risk to an application or environment that is crucial for conducting business. 

Due to the complexity and dynamic nature of cloud-native technologies, as well as the quick expansion of attack surfaces, IT teams are increasingly relying on automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically identify and fix problems across the entire technology stack, including cloud-native microservices, Kubernetes containers, multi-cloud environments, or mainframe data centers. 

AI is already being used for continuous detection and prioritization, maximizing speed and uptime while lowering risk by automatically identifying and blocking security exploits without human interaction. Also, more than 75% of technologists think AI will become more crucial in tackling the issues their firm has with speed, size, and application security skills. 

To safeguard modern application stacks, companies must encourage much closer IT team collaboration. With a DevSecOps strategy, security teams analyze and evaluate security risks and priorities during planning phases to establish a solid basis for development. This adds security testing early in the development process. 

IT teams can be far more proactive and strategic in how they manage risk with a comprehensive approach to application security that combines automation, integrated performance, security monitoring, and DevSecOps approaches. A security strategy for the entire application stack can free engineers from their impasse and enable them to create more secure products, prevent expensive downtime, and advance into the next innovation era.