The shift from local installations to SaaS has been revolutionary for many businesses. Killer apps that might have required an entire server room now live in the cloud, where they can be set up in minutes and accessed from anywhere. Unfortunately, cybercriminals love the cloud, too, so maintaining robust cybersecurity for your SaaS applications is essential.
Too many businesses risk their financial health and reputation by leaving the protection of their critical software functions and sensitive customer data entirely up to vendors. Shockingly, only 7% of organizations maintain security coverage for their entire SaaS stack, and the majority cover only half or less.
If you want to avoid becoming another cautionary tale of a horrific data breach (and stay compliant with increasingly stringent data protection regulations), take your SaaS security into your own hands. While good policy and best practices can do a lot to protect you, nothing beats having the right tools to keep your SaaS stack safe.
What are SaaS security tools?
SaaS security tools are software programs designed to protect cloud apps and data, where anyone with an internet connection can attempt to access them. Many of the features that make SaaS convenient for businesses—fast user account creation, remote accessibility, API integrations—also make it vulnerable to hostile attacks. These security tools ensure that you can use your SaaS solutions safely.
What are the different types of SaaS security tools?
SaaS presents a broad attack surface with many potential vulnerabilities, so many different types of tools are used to secure it.
- Virtual private networks and firewalls filter the network traffic that flows in and out of your cloud (or multi-cloud) services.
- Authentication and access management tools ensure that only authorized users can access your SaaS apps.
- Encryption tools protect your data by making it impossible for hackers to decode, even if they breach your network defenses.
- Training and education tools help your employees learn how to identify and respond to phishing attacks and other cyberattacks that exploit human vulnerabilities.
- Intrusion detection and prevention systems analyze user behavior and network activity to identify signs of a breach in progress and notify you when they detect something suspicious.
- Data loss prevention and recovery tools minimize the impact of a successful breach by backing up data and getting interrupted services back online.
The Benefits of SaaS Security Tools
SaaS security tools will help keep you compliant with regulatory requirements, give your clients and partners peace of mind knowing that you’re doing everything you can to protect their data, and—most importantly—they can detect and prevent actual cyberattacks that might otherwise cost millions of dollars and untold reputational damage.
Key Features of SaaS Security Tools
Where applicable, good SaaS security tools should include the following features:
- Data Security – The tool should use encryption to secure any data it reads or modifies.
- Continuous Monitoring – In today’s threat landscape, frequent scans aren’t enough—you need ongoing 24/7 monitoring and threat intelligence.
- Auditing – It’s essential to audit your security posture on a regular schedule to look for vulnerabilities and areas for improvement.
- Compliance – Your tools should help you meet regulatory requirements and prove compliance.
- Third-party Integration – Ensure your security tools and SaaS apps can talk to each other.
Top 10 SaaS Security Tools
1. Rezonate
Rezonate is an identity and access management solution that creates detailed profiles of the devices and individuals accessing your SaaS apps. This oversight allows for constant monitoring and risk reduction, helping you identify potential issues with authentication and permissions before attackers do.
Best for: Identity access management for medium to large-sized organizations.
Price: By inquiry
Review: “Within hours of deployment, we understood the complete picture of our cross-cloud identity and access risks.”
2. CybeReady
CybeReady is a security awareness training platform proven to strengthen any organization’s first line of defense—its employees. With multilingual training modules, varied and realistic phishing simulations, and a complete set of options for accessibility and inclusivity, this solution offers an engaging, effective program that educates your team in detecting, preventing, and responding to attacks.
Best for: Training employees to identify and avoid cyber threats.
Price: By inquiry
Review: “The quality of the phishing simulations is excellent. Lots of variety and many of them replicate real-world attacks. The platform is very easy to use and support has been great.”
3. Astra Security
The Astra Security Suite protects your organization through continuous vulnerability scanning and penetration testing. This solution scans for thousands of potential weak points across your web and mobile apps, API integrations, and network, minimizing your risk of falling victim to zero-day exploits or concerted attacks.
Best for: Ensuring your security loopholes are found and fixed as quickly as possible.
Price: Starts at $199 per month.
Review: “The Astra dashboard is easy to understand and allows me to see how many threats and attacks it has prevented.”
4. Suridata
This SaaS-focused security solution monitors your apps to identify risks and provide actionable advice for mitigating them. Suridata looks at configuration issues and third-party integrations, analyzes the accessibility and permissions of sensitive data stored on the cloud, and monitors user activity in real-time to detect suspicious behavior.
Best for: Identifying and remediating fixable SaaS security issues.
Price: By inquiry
Review: “It is easy to use and very intuitive, it provides a good coverage of the SSPM domain, and the integrations were very easy to implement.”
5. Sprinto
Regulatory compliance is integral to maintaining a strong security posture, and Sprinto offers an automated platform that helps companies meet their obligations and pass audits. Sprinto supports all major international frameworks and integrates with over 200 cloud-based SaaS applications.
Best for: Getting (and staying) in compliance with cybersecurity regulations.
Price: By inquiry
Review: “Sprinto’s remarkable time-saving capabilities have streamlined our compliance procedures, allowing us to focus on other priorities.”
6. SpectralOps
SpectralOps minimizes security risks by scanning your code for misconfigurations, policy loopholes, exposed API keys, compromised credentials, and other issues. This solution works quickly and accurately, making it easy for developers to engage in ongoing monitoring and catch problems before hostile parties can swoop in.
Best for: Locating and patching vulnerabilities in your code and other assets.
Price: By inquiry
Review: “Spectral is easy to set up and use, and it provides valuable insights into sensitive issues.”
7. LayerX Security
SaaS applications are frequently accessed through browser interfaces, and this solution provides robust security at the browser level. LayerX’s platform monitors user activity, risky extensions, third-party access, compromised devices, malicious websites, and other browser-borne hazards.
Best for: Preventing the browsers used to access SaaS apps from becoming attack vectors.
Price: By inquiry
Review: “It’s amazing how quickly LayerX detects user behavior that’s out of line. It keeps me calm knowing that if someone’s trying to steal our data, we’ll catch them sooner rather than later.”
8. NordLayer
NordLayer provides a full suite of security features for businesses that operate on the cloud, including VPN services, firewalls, secure web gateways, encryption access controls, and support for Zero Trust architecture. This solution is easy to scale and configure around your organization’s specific needs.
Best for: Securing your network traffic.
Price: Monthly plans range from $8 to $14 per user, with custom enterprise pricing.
Review: “NordLayer makes it easy to implement a company VPN and secure company communications and traffic at a reasonable price.”
9. CrowdStrike
This security solution focuses on endpoint security and threat intelligence. CrowdStrike provides real-time visibility into possible cloud breaches, identity-based attacks, malware, and other red-flag events, giving you the best opportunities to catch and prevent them in time.
Best for: Continuous threat monitoring.
Price: By inquiry
Review: “The platform’s machine learning algorithms and behavioral analytics are highly effective in identifying and preventing various cyber threats, including malware and ransomware.”
10. Rubrik
Rubrik uses generative AI to enhance your threat detection and cyber resilience capabilities. With continuous monitoring and analytics, this solution identifies risks and provides insights for mitigation and recovery. Rubrik also offers secure backups of your important data.
Best for: Supporting resiliency and recovery.
Price: By inquiry
Review: “Rubrik continues to add features not just for backup but security, taking advantage of the metadata it has access to. Their team and support is very responsive.”
Knowledge is the Ultimate SaaS Security Tool
The right security tools can fortify your SaaS stack against all kinds of attacks and intrusions, but when human variables are in play, it can only take one mistake to invite a catastrophic breach. Arming your employees with knowledge that can help them anticipate and respond to attacks is one of the most effective ways to stay safe.
That’s why CybeReady can be invaluable to your SaaS security program. Sign up for a demo today to see how easy, informative, and engaging cybersecurity education can be with CybeReady.
