Software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications have revolutionized how businesses operate, collaborate, and store data. However, with these advancements come increased security challenges in protecting the data these applications store and process. The average enterprise has 437 SaaS applications to manage, making consistent application and monitoring challenging. Compounding this problem is that 80% of employees adopt SaaS applications without IT approval, creating a sprawl of technologies that are not managed or monitored appropriately.
Many organizations have turned to Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs) and manual audits to mitigate these risks. Yet, recent insights reveal that CASBs alone may not be sufficient in safeguarding SaaS applications and preventing the phenomenon of SaaS sprawl.
The Limitations of CASBs
CASBs, designed to provide visibility and control over data transferred between cloud service providers and enterprise networks, have undoubtedly played a crucial role in enhancing cloud security. However, they fall short in several key areas when it comes to effectively securing SaaS applications.
One of the primary shortcomings of CASBs lies in their inability to offer comprehensive protection across the entire SaaS ecosystem. While they excel in providing visibility and control over sanctioned cloud applications, they often struggle to monitor and govern unsanctioned or “shadow IT” usage. As employees increasingly turn to unauthorized applications to fulfill their workflow needs, the risk of data exposure and compliance violations escalates.
The reliance on manual audits to supplement CASB functionalities also introduces vulnerabilities and gaps in security. The intermittent nature of audits means that organizations are exposed between assessment periods, rendering them susceptible to security incidents during these intervals. With data constantly in motion and evolving threat landscapes, the reactive nature of manual audits proves insufficient in ensuring real-time protection against emerging risks.
Limitations In Coverage & Visibility
CASBs have been pivotal in enhancing SaaS security but exhibit significant limitations that affect their efficacy. One critical drawback is their lack of visibility into unsanctioned applications. While forward proxies can monitor known or sanctioned apps, their coverage extends only to web protocols, leaving many applications unchecked. This gap is particularly problematic as it does not account for historical or personal device usage of SaaS applications, making comprehensive oversight challenging.
Moreover, CASBs depend heavily on integrations with SaaS applications to enforce security policies. However, not all applications provide robust APIs, limiting CASBs’ ability to effectively implement controls across the board. This integration gap particularly affects the management of shadow IT, where unauthorized apps remain outside the purview of CASB functionalities. Additionally, CASBs often fail to detect overlapping functionalities within SaaS applications or identify unused or underutilized apps, leading to resource use and security coverage inefficiencies.
CASB Complexities
Deploying and managing CASBs in SaaS environments introduces complexities that can be daunting for many organizations. Configuring CASBs requires a deep understanding of each SaaS application’s unique functionality and security needs, often necessitating the creation of custom policies rather than relying on automated playbooks. The deployment process is not straightforward—it demands specific technical expertise and tools like proxy auto-configs (PACs) and log collectors.
Furthermore, setting up a CASB solution can be resource-intensive, requiring significant time and expertise. Additionally, CASBs typically do not support modern IT needs, such as managing SaaS applications during employee onboarding and offboarding. They lack automated workflows that can streamline these processes and reduce security risks.
Industry Caution
Industry leaders like Microsoft caution against using proxy-based CASBs with Microsoft 365 because they depend on external systems’ compatibility. As Microsoft updates its authentication methods and protocols, proxy-based CASBs, which rely on intercepting and inspecting data between users and cloud services, might not function correctly or at all.
It results in a critical reliability issue for businesses; they might face unexpected disruptions in CASB functionalities, leading to security vulnerabilities and performance problems without any support from Microsoft to resolve these issues. This scenario underlines a broader limitation of CASBs: their effectiveness is contingent upon continuous compatibility with each SaaS platform’s evolving infrastructure, which cannot always be guaranteed.
Going Beyond CASBs
As organizations face heightened vulnerabilities, compliance challenges, and potential data breaches, jeopardizing their reputation and bottom line, they need more than the support of a CASB. Organizations need security strategies that are more comprehensive and overcome the limitations of CASB, allowing them to secure their SaaS infrastructure holistically, whether a solution has already been previously identified or not.
Enterprises are increasingly turning to SaaS Identity solutions like Savvy as a proactive approach to fortify their SaaS security posture. Unlike CASBs, Savvy’s SaaS App security solution offers holistic coverage across the entire SaaS environment, providing continuous monitoring, risk assessment, and compliance management capabilities. By leveraging advanced analytics and automation, Savvy empowers organizations to identify and mitigate security risks in real-time, reducing the likelihood of data breaches and compliance violations.
Why Savvy?
Savvy Identity-First Security for SaaS helps security teams safely embrace decentralized SaaS adoption by automating the discovery and removal of the most toxic combinations of risks. Savvy automation playbooks direct just-in-time security guardrails that guide users at scale toward proper security hygiene. Comprehensive inventory and offboarding capabilities ensure that compliance is maintained when offboarding users.
While CASBs have undoubtedly played a vital role in enhancing cloud security, their limitations in addressing SaaS application security and preventing SaaS sprawl underscore the need for more comprehensive and proactive approaches.
Take charge of SaaS security beyond CASB and make it part of your overall IT organization rather than an exception. Schedule a demo to see Savvy in action.
