If you are planning on building a SaaS application, making it secure should be your highest priority. In the world of growing start-ups, SaaS security is a big concern for many people. Currently, SaaS applications are increasing exponentially. Primarily for their scalability, easy upgrades, and low infrastructure requirements.
However, as the data increases, so does the risk of breaches. For example, the Equifax data breach in 2017 affected over 148 million consumers. In August 2013, hackers were able to gain access to all existing Yahoo accounts, which was approximately 3 billion, according to the settlement website. This data breach wasn’t disclosed until years later, 2016, and is considered the largest hack in history. Therefore, SaaS security is an important aspect that needs consideration before you start developing.
Also read: Best practices to build a secure SaaS platform
Checklist to Improve SaaS Security
You can take several steps to improve the security of your SaaS application. Following is a list of practices that you should try to follow:
Make a SaaS security checklist
Your first step should be making a security checklist. This can help keep the employees on the same page with the security threats. Further, it can also help you keep track of the potential risks and prioritize them for review. Making a checklist can definitely help improve the quality and security of your application.
Improve employee awareness
You should provide security training to your employees. Educating them about security issues can prevent problems arising from within the company.
Further, please encourage them to use two-factor authentication on their logins. Also, make RBAC (role-based access) features to limit the accessibility of data. Awareness about security threats can also help prevent hacking attempts via vishing and phishing.
Security champions
You can also assign security titleholders that are responsible for enforcing security measures across the organization. They are basically the go-to person for all security related issues and questions. Appointing them in your organization will help better implement security practices and make the overall management more straightforward.
Educate customers
Educating customers can also come in handy to improve the security of your SaaS application. Your customers can be dealing with hackers and malware without knowing. Therefore, they must be constantly updated on your latest security upgrades. This can help them make the most of the app’s infrastructure. 2FA and password managers are the most common techniques to incorporate into your application for customer security.
Hiring security engineers
To deal with the company’s security issues efficiently, you can also hire security engineers. They are similar to security champions, except more technically skilled. Security engineers are dedicated employees who work solely to improve your application and data’s safety and security. They make sure the practices are fully functional, and the threats are being handled efficiently and effectively.
Data deletion policy
Customer’s data is constantly being stored on the cloud. However, to prevent any data leakage, you should enforce the data deletion policy. That is, the customers should be able to delete their old data system according to their specifications.
The deletion process should be accurate and efficient. It should not require customer input every time. Instead, the process should take place automatically. The logs should be stored if there is an issue and the customer wants to revert back.
Real time protection
Incorporating real-time monitoring into your application in the development phase can also come in handy to improve its security. It can analyze real and fake threats and queries and prioritize the tasks. However, since the job is crucial for your customer’s data, it should be implemented with 100% accuracy. There should be minimum room for error, and the program should differentiate between the threats accurately.
Secure Deployment
Lastly, make sure you deploy your application on a secure platform. If you are deploying on a public cloud or through a SaaS vendor, ensure that the security is top-notch if you go for self-deployment, research possible security measures, and include them in your product as well.
SaaS vendors generally have all the required security measures in place. However, it is still recommended that you go through the terms and conditions before signing any contract.
Conclusion
SaaS security is crucial for making your application successful. It is important that your customers trust you and are willing to have sensitive data on your application. Your security measures should be capable of withstanding malware attacks and hacking attempts. The above checklist can certainly come in handy to improving app security and preventing any data breaches.