Businesses run on SaaS solutions: nearly every business function relies on multiple cloud-based tech platforms and collaborative work tools like Slack, Google Workspace apps, Jira, Zendesk and others.
We recently surveyed security leaders and CISOs on top data security priorities and challenges. We discovered that over 70% work in organizations using 50 or more SaaS solutions, and nearly a third of the respondents reported their organization’s SaaS environments include 200 or more apps.
With so many cloud-based technology platforms used by employees, customers, vendors, and partners, it’s no surprise that data security incidents across industries are soaring. Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 68% of data breaches “involved a non-malicious human element, like a person falling victim to a social engineering attack or making an error.”
How to scale your data security efforts
No matter the size of your business, your security team should embrace human firewall protocols if the business uses collaborative work apps.
A human firewall, a mixture of training and technology that empowers all employees to protect the company’s networks and systems, requires everyone to have a basic knowledge of data security threats and to sound the alarm when suspicious activity happens.
The catch is ensuring that the entire workforce understands the nature of data security vulnerabilities and can spot a cybersecurity threat before it becomes a full-on attack.
Educating your entire workforce on data security risks and threats and making them part of your cybersecurity strategy is the first step to scaling your data security efforts and reducing the number of inadvertent errors that can open the door to a devastating cyberattack.
The second step is leveraging security tools that enable real-time, dynamic alerts to notify employees when they share sensitive information on an unsecure platform or inadvertently create a cybersecurity risk.
Another key tactic to create safer collaborative work environments: establish clear policies across the organization for downloading and using collaborative SaaS apps.
69% of the CISOs we polled confirmed their organization allowed employees to share access to collaborative work platforms and tools with people outside of the organization. Collaborative SaaS apps are imperative to getting work done—but they also lead to high-risk environments. That’s why it’s so important to have a policy for downloading and using apps that is created and maintained by the company’s security or IT team. (Our survey found that 62% of CISOs have a SaaS policy that apps must be approved by the security team directly.)
Productivity and data security can go hand in hand
Your organization’s productivity levels are directly tied to collaborative SaaS apps. And yet, collaborative SaaS work environments can create high-risk vulnerabilities that cybercriminals most often target. These apps are, arguably, one of the most compelling reasons your security team should implement a human firewall strategy.
With so many people using and having access to so many collaborative work tools, it is imperative that employees know how to spot a security risk—and that security teams have access to data security tools that enable the entire workforce to be part of their company’s security strategy.
CISOs know that cybersecurity incidents are inevitable. Our survey revealed the most common types of cybersecurity incidents experienced by respondents involved malware attacks, phishing schemes and compromised credentials, and data breaches—all cybersecurity incidents that are often traced to human errors. With more than half of the survey respondents confirming they had experienced such incidents either occasionally or frequently, it’s no surprise that 79% said that they plan to prioritize security awareness and training in the coming year.
But it takes more than security awareness and training to keep your network of SaaS apps safe. Adopting human firewall strategies and implementing data security tools that enable visibility into your SaaS environments are foundational to a comprehensive data security plan. Best of all, it allows your organization to maintain high productivity levels without compromising on the security of your data.