- The rise of Shadow SaaS is becoming a critical challenge for organizations, as unauthorized SaaS applications continue to infiltrate networks undetected.
- These hidden applications increase the attack surface, allowing cybercriminals to exploit unseen vulnerabilities. As businesses adopt more cloud-based services, the complexity of managing and securing these platforms grows.
- Tackling Shadow SaaS requires real-time visibility and control over all apps used in an organization, authorized or not. This growing trend poses significant cybersecurity threats that demand immediate attention to avoid the escalation of SaaS-based attacks.
The advent of Shadow SaaS, which includes unauthorized SaaS applications that employees are compelled to use in the absence of the company’s IT department, has become a significant concern. As organizations continue to adopt cloud solutions for daily operations, employees tend to download or use external SaaS applications without going through the organizations’ IT departments. Such actions secretly create extra, known as Shadow SaaS, which makes organizations more vulnerable to cyber threats.
This poses the most significant threat with Shadow SaaS; you can hardly know what is happening behind the scenes. What is not seen, cannot be protected by IT teams, and such hidden apps are likely to escape security policies making sensitive information available for usage. This makes it easy for hackers to attack the system, as they will find it ineffective or have no defenses in place. All it takes to gain access to more sophisticated attacks such as data breaches, cryptocurrency, and ransomware is just one unsecured application.
In addition, shadow SaaS poses severe regulatory concerns. Most of these applications are not authorized or sometimes in contravention of the laws on data protection, leading to possible breaches. Non-compliant applications can lead to the uncontrollable exposure of sensitive business or customer information to the public, which leaves organizations on the hook for breaches and fines for non-legal compliance. And with time, as it has been witnessed, the growth of more Shadow SaaS apps will also emerge, bringing in other risks of compliance and reputation damage.
One of the most challenging issues of removing Shadow SaaS is attributed to it being inappropriate to call. Employees who are under increasing pressure to be efficient may underestimate the risk of using apps that the company has not sanctioned. However, defense-in-depth is often riddled with weaknesses that are easily exploited by cybercriminals. Easing off the restrictive strategies used in managing software or apps by companies is critical while shifting towards active monitoring and visibility tools to assess, understand, and control threats from latent or emergent apps.
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As highlighted above, organizations must ensure that, when considering the entirety of using SaaS applications wherever they form part of their networks, such visibility often needs to be improved. Despite applying these valuable methods of avoiding further risks associated with weak management in companies working with IT departments, they can also prevent unknown applications from damaging their systems. With the increasing usage of SaaS services, organizations must be more proactive in developing order, processes, and security measures to contain the Shadow SaaS menace.
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