SaaS Isn’t Risk-Free: What Vendors Don’t Always Tell You

Practically all businesses run on a SaaS (software-as-a-service) these days. They can be incredibly helpful in boosting productivity, handling side tasks to free you up for what your focus should be. It’s easy (and tempting!) to install a service and figure out all that comes with it later, but this poses a serious security risk to your company. Each integration you use in your business acts as a bridge between a third-party system and your data. Because of the security risks it can pose, you need to be critical and discerning while vetting a new SaaS integration. 

T-Mobile experienced a breach in 2023 that was the result of a breach that spread vastly throughout their digital ecosystem because they had so many third-party vendors that they relied on. In a highly interconnected system, vulnerability in any one area can lead to exploitation in another area and access gained to other systems by bad actors.  

To prevent any weak links in your third-party software, use the following steps to vet their integration: 

1. Take a close look at the vendor’s security policy.  Check on their security certificates. Ask questions. Do a background check on their company to see if they have a breach history. Find out how long they have been in business and check out client reviews.  
2. Discover what the SaaS integration will have access to. Be careful of any tool that requests global “read and write” access to your whole environment. Use the principal of least privilege to allow them access only to what is necessary for them to perform their tasks.  
3. If your company answers to any regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, CMMC, etc., then the third-party vendors you use must also be compliant. Pay attention to where the vendors store your data at rest and the locations of their data centers. There is a possibility that they could be storing your data in countries or regions with relaxed privacy laws. This part of vetting can be tedious, but it is worth the time it takes to ensure your business is secure.  
4. Check out how (or if!) the software uses secure authentication protocols, avoiding services that require you to always share login credentials. 
5. Even from the beginning, have the end of the partnership in mind. Over time, many of the integrations you now use will need to be upgraded or replaced, it’s just the nature of the beast. Before you uninstall, make sure you find out the data export process after your contract ends, if the data will be available in a standard format for future use, and how the vendor ensures that all your information is permanently deleted from their servers. All trustworthy vendors will have a clear offboarding process.  

If you use more than one SaaS, your business is running on a complex system of integrations, and your data is moving from your office systems, through the world wide web, and into other third-party systems and servers for processing and storing. You cannot successfully run your business in isolation. Therefore, vetting your vendors is crucial. Contact Tech Eagles today to learn how we can help you keep your business secure!