Top 7 SaaS Security Tools And Best Practices

Gone are the days of bulky servers and software headaches. SaaS offers a convenient, cost-effective way to access applications online. But with great convenience comes great responsibility—for securing your data. This is where SaaS Security Tools step in.

These tools help streamline your SaaS security needs by performing compliance checks, monitoring assets, and employing the best security practices to ensure the safety of your SaaS application. This article explores the world of SaaS security tools, their importance, must-have features, top contenders, and best practices for keeping your SaaS application unbreakable.

Why is SaaS Security Important?

1. Compliance

Securing SaaS forms an important part of maintaining compliance with regulatory standards and laws like ISO 27001, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS. Compliance is becoming crucial for all companies globally.

SaaS security ensures the continued compliance of the SaaS server and application, thus reducing the risk of non-compliance and subsequent penalties or other charges. Because of their compliance, SaaS or cloud service providers are attractive candidates for potential customers.

2. Data Security

One of the primary reasons for implementing SaaS or cloud security solutions is data safety. This can be client data or software-related information, all of which are highly confidential in nature and, as such, require continuous monitoring, vulnerability assessments, and regular patch updates to ensure their continued safety.

Continuous assessments form the crux of maintaining the safety and security of data in SaaS.

3. Reliability

Having SaaS security and implementing the best measures makes the cloud service provider seem more reliable and trustworthy. It raises the bar for customer confidence due to increased vigilance in place to protect their applications and data throughout.

4. Something for the Sales Team Boast About

Having good SaaS security tools in place is a vital component for companies that are looking for a SaaS provider. Here, cloud services with a great SaaS security system with continuous scans, monitoring, and safety measures have the upper hand.

This is because the sales team can use this as an attribute that appeals to potential customers.

Comparison Table of Top SaaS Security Tools

Tools	Offerings	Pros	Cons
Astra Security	Continuous vulnerability assessment, manual pentest, compliance assistance	9300+ tests, CI/CD integration, zero false positives, publicly verifiable certification	Only 1-week free trial available.
Intruder	Internal and External Vulnerability Scanning, Continuous Penetration Testing	Pro-active scanning with real-time alerts. Applies latest security patches for safety.	Does not provide manual penetration testing.
Cloudflare	Web Application Firewall, Encryption, DDoS Protection	Largest server networks. Scalable services. Provides security to anything from servers to domains and installations.	The main focus is on protecting public-facing applications like websites and APIs.
Orca Security	Shift Left Security, Identity Access, Management, Malware Detection.	Aids in compliance enforcement. Provides protection for high-risk data like PII. Provides alert on Slack or other mediums when configured.	Quote available on contact.
Rubrik	Cloud Security, Secure backups, Ransomware Protection	Provides security for hybrid, virtual and physical platforms. Unified cloud backups with precise data recovery.	Pricing is only available on demand.
TOPIA	Patchless Protection, Network Scanners, 0-Day Detection	Emphasis on vulnerability management. Assured cloud security over multiple vendors.	Much more applicable for larger enterprises.
Zscaler	Ransomware Protection, Cloud Security, SSL Inspection, Zero Trust Exchange	Offers services like file recovery and integrity monitoring. Inspection of SSL traffic for malicious activity. User-friendly interface.	Pricing options are available only on contact.

Features to Look for in SaaS Security Tools

1. Data Security

Ensure that the SaaS security tools you have shortlisted have good measures in place to ensure data safety. This can include enabling data encryption like Transport Layer Security (TLS) to protect data in transit. It can also be enabled for data at rest, along with multiple levels of security.

Another method is to allow the encryption keys to remain with SaaS customers, thus ensuring that server-side employees can not gain access to confidential data. Continuous vulnerability assessments are also crucial in ensuring the data remains safe since the discovered vulnerabilities will be immediately fixed.

2. Continuous Assessments

Continued vulnerability assessments help identify vulnerabilities in the security system. If such vulnerabilities are discovered, they are mentioned in a detailed report with remediation measures. Vulnerability assessments are much easier to carry out frequently.

A good vulnerability scanner should be able to detect any known vulnerabilities, OWASP 10 and SANS 25. Vulnerability assessments should also be done every time a feature is updated or introduced into the platform form, as it could have hidden vulnerabilities. These are also relevant to maintaining compliance.

3. Security Audits

This is a systemic analysis of the security protocols in place to protect your organization. Cloud security tools that provide audits analyze every aspect of the security measure, unlike a vulnerability assessment or a penetration test, which works to find and exploit vulnerabilities.

It generally focuses on hardware and software configurations, physical security measures, devices used, etc. SaaS security auditors are crucial for achieving and maintaining compliance with regulations like SOC2 and ISO 27001 and standard laws like HIPAA and PCI-DSS.

To ensure maximum safety, audits must be conducted at least once or twice a year.

4. Compliance

As mentioned earlier, compliance is an important aspect of SaaS. Therefore, when choosing a SaaS security tool, it is crucial to assess what compliances they adhere to and whether they align with regulatory compliances such as HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, SOC2, and ISO 27001.

With each regulatory body, the standards that need to be met may vary. SOC2 is a certification that focuses more on cloud security solutions and continuous monitoring of the safety protocols implemented. Therefore, ensure your SaaS security tool provides continuous compliance checks.

5. Integration

Make sure that the SaaS security tools you are considering provide integrative possibilities. This will enable you to integrate the SaaS security tool and its testing features into your CI/CD pipeline. This ensures that every code update is scanned for vulnerabilities automatically before hitting the production phase.

This essentially allows your organization to move from DevOps to DevSecOps, a methodology where security is also given prime importance. A SaaS security tool’s integrative capacities allow it to provide security and testing to your projects across multiple platforms.

7 Best SaaS Security Tools in 2024

1. Astra Security

As one of the leading SaaS security companies, Astra Security’s PTaaS platform blends automation, AI, and human expertise to provide exhaustive pentests with over 9300+ automated tests.

Our vetted scans guarantee zero false positives, while the industry-specific AI-powered test cases combined with a CXO-friendly dashboard and tailored exhaustive reports guarantee a smooth experience while proactively saving you millions of dollars.

Moreover, our seamless integrations rescans, and publicly verifiable security certificates make security audits effective and hassle-free. Still don’t believe us? Check out what our customers think!

Features:

Powerful vulnerability scanner that can detect vulnerabilities from known CVEs, OWASP Top 10, SANS 25, and based on intel.
Based on the above, detailed fixing measures are provided through video POCs and detailed reports.
Provides VAPT services and regular audits to ensure that the SaaS is regulation-compliant and free of any vulnerabilities.
Provides website protection with a powerful firewall and malware detection.
Unlike other SaaS security tools, Astra also provides publicly verifiable certificates that boost the trustworthiness and clientele of one’s organization.

Astra Pentest is built by the team of experts that helped secure Microsoft, Adobe, Facebook, and Buffer

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2. Intruder

Intruder vulnerability management software helps provide SaaS security to companies with finite resources and helps run efficient and effective vulnerability management.

Features:

Offers internal and external vulnerability scanning as well as continuous penetration testing.
Asset discovery and tagging options.
Risks and patch management services are offered for the SaaS services.

3. Cloudflare

This popular online protection service offers reliable protection for SaaS services, websites, APIs, and everything connected to the internet.

Features:

Provides optimized, high-speed connectivity between devices.
Network protectivity against external attacks.
Secures resources like cloud applications, web services, and applications.

4. Orca Security

This agentless SaaS security tool ensures targeted visibility to AWS, GCP, and Azure. It works through immediate identification of assets which are then scanned for any resolution requirements or other security ambiguities.

Features:

Provides behavioral analytics of the SaaS applications and other public cloud platforms.
Other features like data encryption, antivirus, potential intrusion, and threat detection are also provided.
It involves a simple 3-step process that includes discovery, monitoring, and assessing the SaaS application assets.

5. Rubrik

This tool is perfect for SaaS applications with complex architectures as it provides extremely secure backups with pin-pointed restoration facilities.

Features:

It provides centralized data management to gain full accessibility regardless of the environment leading to simplified control.
Ultimate and impregnable data backup security, which helps in easy recovery in case of any disastrous events.
Provides data safety even when it is stored as a backup with the help of immutable storage.

6. TOPIA

This innovative SaaS security tool collects relevant data on assets across the digital infrastructure to analyze them for threats and rank them based on severity so that they can be fixed quickly.

Features:

SaaS applications are scanned in real-time to ensure the identification of any threats and appropriate patch management to fix them.
Amazing GUI that makes it easy for users to navigate through regarding vulnerability identification and effective response.
Provides patchless protection feature on applications by securing it with a force field with the aid of binary instrumentation that gives in-memory protection.

7. Zscaler

Yet another leading cybersecurity provider, Zscaler provides the users with a tight zero-trust security posture that can be managed at all aspects, thus making navigation easy and the security posture more secure.

Features:

Distributed cloud-based security for web, email, and mobile computing regardless of client locations.
Identifies SaaS application misconfigurations and improper access authentication to provide remediation measures.
Provides secure access to the SaaS application with alerts for any anomalies or threats found.

See Astra’s continuous Pentest platform in action.

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Best SaaS Security Practices To Follow

1. SaaS Security Checklist

It is an essential practice for every SaaS vendor to maintain a SaaS security checklist. This can provide easy access to the requirements that need to be met by the SaaS providers and customers equally. It also ensures a smooth transition from assessment to implementation without making any mistakes in the process.

Each organization has different priorities and processes for building a checklist. However, the general areas in the SaaS security checklist include security protocols implemented, the status of compliance, ensuring data encryption both during rest and in transit, authentication procedures, and automated backups.

2. Access Management

Identity access management is a system used to verify each user’s identity and determine whether the user has the right to use or download data from a SaaS application. In short, the system works to authenticate, authorize, and screen users for activities on a SaaS platform that they may or may not perform.

This form of authentication and authorization also enables role-based access control and multi-factor authentication, requiring users to present at least two pieces of proof of identity to be able to gain access. This provides highly scrutinized security to reduce identity theft or malicious actors trying to gain access.

Make your SaaS Platform the safest place on the Internet.

With our detailed and specially
curated SaaS security checklist.

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3. Regular Penetration Tests

Penetration testing is the process of finding vulnerabilities within a security system and trying to gain access through hacker-style exploitation. These tests are extremely beneficial in thoroughly analyzing the damaging impact a vulnerability could have on the security system. This can be done for networks, web applications, APIs, and cloud infrastructure.

Regular penetration testing and its integration into your organization’s CI/CD pipeline can make application development go much smoother, faster, and more efficiently. The detailed reports provided at the end of a test can help developers patch the issues found.

4. Incident Response Planning

Backing up all the relevant data must be done periodically to ensure that the original data can be retrieved without any major complications if a disaster strikes or a breach occurs. This makes it an important part of disaster recovery and incident response plans.

Enabling a data retention policy is also a must to ensure that only relevant data is stored on servers and that superficial yet important data is deleted from them after a certain period of time.

This provides an additional layer of security in SaaS security management, as client-side information isn’t available for extended periods of time without due cause.

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Final Thoughts

Keeping your SaaS application secure doesn’t have to be a headache. Leveraging SaaS security tools can streamline security measures, ensure compliance, and gain peace of mind.

From vulnerability assessments to real-time threat detection, while the above list is not exhaustive, tools like Astra can help fulfill your specific security needs. Moreover, with the right security partner in place, you can confidently embrace the convenience and cost-savings of SaaS, knowing your data is safe.

FAQs

1. Why is SaaS more secure?

Software as a Service or SaaS is more secure since it most often employs Transport Layer Security to protect data in transit, while encryption is also offered for data at rest.

2. Who is responsible for SaaS security?

Generally, SaaS vendors are responsible for security, as they must ensure that their cloud servers, physical infrastructure, and application security are top-notch. However, SaaS customers must also do their due diligence before opting for a SaaS vendor to ensure the maximum safety of sensitive data.

3. What is the relevance of SaaS security?

SaaS security is relevant as it ensures application compliance and data security and helps in incident recovery if good policies are implemented. It also makes applications less vulnerable to external attacks.