SaaS Security Checklist - Best Practices To Follow Before Launching Your SaaS Product.

When it comes to building your SaaS product or an app, there are a lot of things that you need to consider and put in place before you launch. There is no one-size-fits-all model for any product, and many factors come into play when building and releasing a SaaS product. This article will help you get started with setting up your SaaS security checklist before the release of your product.

Biggest SaaS Security Risks

Before we take security measures, we need to have knowledge of the possible threats. We will go through the most common risks that a SaaS product faces and how to mitigate them.

1. Phishing

Phishing is a fraudulent activity that involves the use of fake email messages to trick users into revealing sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details. This technique is widely used by hackers to gain access to SaaS accounts, often without any notification from the company. To avoid this, always verify the source of emails.

2. Vishing

Vishing is similar to phishing but it involves phone calls rather than email messages. Like phishing, vishing can be used by hackers to steal your credentials and accounts details without any notification from the company. The main difference between phishing and vishing is that in the latter, a caller pretends to be from your company or a trusted individual while in the former it is a call from an unknown number. To avoid this, always verify phone numbers before you provide any information.

4. Spam

Spam is unwanted communication sent to you via email, social media, or other messaging channels with the sole purpose of annoying you. It can be in the form of unsolicited advertisements, notifications about new products or services that are not relevant to you, or links to websites that are malware-infected. You can avoid this by verifying the source of all emails and social media messages you receive.

3. Denial of Service ( DoS )

Denial of service is a type of attack that involves flooding your system with traffic in order to prevent it from working. For example, you might have an email notification about the changes in your account details or some other issue with your SaaS product. You will get multiple notifications from the same email account and all of them will be triggered by a Denial of Service attack. In this case, the hacker is using multiple IP addresses to make it appear that your server is overloaded or malfunctioning. You can mitigate this risk by limiting traffic from specific sources, such as your SaaS provider.

4. DDoS

DDoS is a type of cyber attack in which hackers use multiple compromised computers to send a massive amount of traffic to your website. In this case, the hacker is sending a large amount of data to your site and you will be unable to handle it. If left unchecked, this could lead to permanent damage or even shutdown of your website. The best way to prevent DDoS attacks is by limiting access from specific IP addresses or devices.

5. Fake News

Fake news is a type of cyber attack that can spread through social media, email, and text messages to create chaos in your business. For example, you might have some malicious advertisement on your website that claims your product is cheaper than the competition. In this case, your site will get huge traffic from people who are looking for information about the product and its price. This can lead to a flood of requests on your server which could cause it to crash or overload.

6. Account Takeovers ( ATOs )

A lot of cyber attacks are actually carried out by hackers who have stolen your account. For example, you might receive an email from someone claiming to be from a bank or credit card company. They will ask for personal information such as the last four digits of your social security number and a password. If you provide this information, they will then attempt to take over your account.

7. Data Access Risk

This type of attack is carried out through phishing emails that contain malicious software. The goal is to steal your personal information and then use it for their own gain. To avoid this attack, never click on links or open attachments in emails you don't recognize.

8. Lack of Transparency

Lack of hidden objectives or conditions, complemented by the availability of all necessary information for collaboration, cooperation, and collaborative decision making

9. Lack of Federated Identity Management

Federated identity management (FIDM) is a system that allows users at separate enterprises to use the same verification method for access to applications and other resources. For example, when an employee in one enterprise is granted access to a service, such as an e-mail application, by using their existing credentials from another enterprise.

Employees may have multiple identities at multiple SaaS providers, so after the termination of an employee, automatically shutting off the access isn't possible.

10. Lack of robust Service Level Agreements ( SLAs )

If you’re a business owner, you must have heard of service level agreements (SLAs). If not, they are a contract between a customer and a supplier. The SLA sets out how often a certain service is expected to be provided, the minimum standard for the service, and the actions that should be taken in case of failure. Most small businesses don’t bother about SLAs because they feel it is an unnecessary cost.

In an ideal world, the customer would receive exactly what they have paid for every time they use the service. In reality, however, there are always going to be times when things go wrong. In a typical SaaS environment, it is difficult to know when something has gone wrong because the customer may not notice anything different about their service. If your application fails, you can get into trouble if you don’t have a well-defined SLA that guarantees that everything will be running smoothly.

When things go wrong, you want to know that your customer will get their money back and then some. You can’t guarantee this if you don’t have a well-defined SLA. A common mistake made by SaaS providers is not providing sufficient SLAs. For example, they may only provide an SLA that guarantees the application will be available 99.9% of the time. This means that in reality there is a 0.1% chance of it not working for 24 hours (about one in every hundred thousand times).

The cost of running an application 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for just 1 year is $4.5 million. This means that the customer would lose $0.25 per hour of downtime (about $6,000). If you think about it this way, it’s not really a bad deal.

An SLA that guarantees 99.9% availability for 1 year is actually not a very good value to the customer. It’s only worth $4,500 per hour of downtime (about $0.25 per minute). This means that if your application fails every hour for 1 year, the customer would lose $36,000.

When things go wrong with your application, you want to ensure that it will be fixed quickly so that your customers can get back to work as soon as possible. The longer it takes to fix an issue in production, the more likely it is that the issue will be missed. This means that your customers are losing time, money, and confidence in your product.

To prevent this from happening, you need to have a way of monitoring the performance of your application during normal operation. If something goes wrong, you want to know immediately so that you can fix it and get your customers back to work as soon as possible.

11. Vendor Lock-In

One of the biggest problems with cloud computing is vendor lock-in. This occurs when you get locked into a particular cloud provider and can’t move to another one without losing all your data. If you think about it, this is extremely bad for businesses because they can lose their entire business overnight if they make the wrong choice.

There are two ways that vendor lock-in can happen:

1) By paying for a specific set of services (e.g., Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure).

2) By using proprietary APIs (i.e., programming languages and libraries) that only work with a specific cloud provider.

The first type of lock-in is relatively easy to avoid and can be avoided by using multiple clouds (i.e., using multiple providers). The second type of lock-in is much more difficult to avoid, but you can minimize it by using open source software and avoiding proprietary APIs.

12. Network Effects

Network effects occur when a product or service becomes more valuable as more people use it. For example, the greater the number of users that Spotify has, the more valuable its service is to each user because they can listen to more music. This is known as the network effect because the value of a product or service increases with more people using it.

Network effects are extremely powerful, but they can also be very dangerous if you don’t understand them and how to manage them.

13. Identity Theft

Identity theft is a major problem that occurs when people use their personal information to commit fraud. This is an incredibly serious issue because identity theft can cause a lot of problems for you and your family.

One way that companies protect themselves from identity theft is by requiring users to register with them before they can use their services. This is known as account verification because you need to verify your identity before you are allowed to use the service.

The problem with this approach is that it creates a barrier between the user and the company. It also prevents users from changing their personal information if they discover that someone else is using it.

In contrast, companies that use the open identity model do not require users to register with them before they can use their services. Instead, you just have to provide a username and password when you sign up for the service.

This approach allows you to change your personal information whenever you want. It also allows users to communicate with each other because they do not need to use a separate username and password for every website that they visit.

The open identity model is much more flexible than the account verification approach used by most companies, but it does have some limitations. For example, it does not work for services that require you to sign up before you can use them.

14. Data Theft

Every organization today has sensitive data that could be stolen by hackers. The impact of data breaches can be very serious, but it is hard to predict when or where it will happen. A good example of this is the recent Equifax data breach in which the personal information of more than 143 million people was compromised, putting many at risk for identity theft and fraud.

15. Lack of Modern Security Standards

In an age where security is a top priority for businesses, the topic of modern technology and modern security standards is always at the forefront. However, there are often no consistent standards in the industry to base security on. This creates a lot of confusion and uncertainty for companies looking to introduce new technologies and products into their businesses.

16. Unknowns of New Malware & Zero-day Threats

The Internet is a vast and dynamic place, with new threats popping up every day. As such, it can be hard to keep up with the latest security trends and updates that your competitors are making. This means that you could end up running into problems as soon as you start using new technology.

17. Compliance and Audits

Many companies are under the obligation to follow strict security standards, but there is no guarantee that your system will be secure. If you're ever audited by a third party (like the NSA), they may find vulnerabilities in your network and software that could put you at risk for fines or even jail time.

18. Threats Within - Software Bugs & Vulnerabilities

The Internet is full of software bugs and vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers to gain access to your computer system or network. These are especially common in the world of open-source software, where it's easy for anyone with an internet connection to exploit these bugs.

19. No Backup Plan

If you're running your own business, it's important to have a backup plan in place for any system that is critical to the success of your company. This could include anything from an emergency power generator to hard drives or servers with vital information.

20. Lack of Security in the Design Process

There are many ways that security can be compromised in the design process, but it's also possible to build a secure system without even knowing it exists. This is especially true for systems that are not meant to be breached by outsiders or criminals, but rather by people who have been granted access.

21. No Maintenance Plan

If you don't take care of your computer systems and software, they will eventually become obsolete and fail due to old hardware or outdated software. This could cause a breach in security if the organization's data is not backed up and secure.

22. Lack of Proper Management & Training

It's important to have a proper management system in place that can keep an eye on all the systems and software within your organization, as well as provide training for all employees who use these systems. This way, you can ensure that all systems are being used correctly and safely.

I know there might be a question arising in your mind...What shall I do for the protection?

No worries, I got you covered :)

Best Practices to Protect Your SaaS Application

With the rise of SaaS applications, cloud computing, and on-demand IT services, attackers are constantly looking for new ways to gain access to data. The best way to protect your SaaS application is by using a combination of multiple security measures. This blog will also help you understand how to implement these measures and how they will affect your overall security strategy.

Here's a compilation of best practices to help you protect your SaaS application :

1. Developing A Security Review Checklist

Before you deploy your SaaS application, it's important to review the security of the service. Reviewing the security of your SaaS application is crucial because most times, people forget about some simple things that can be easily fixed. A good checklist will help you do this effectively. Here's a checklist you can use to review the security of your SaaS application :

What type of data is stored in your SaaS application? (e.g. Name, Address, Credit Card Information) What kind of encryption is used on that data? How do you authenticate users? (e.g. Using a username and password) What kind of authentication do you use for external APIs? How are you storing user session data in the database? (e.g. Session ID, User ID, etc.)

2. Educating Employees

• About Security

This is one of the most important steps you can take to protect your SaaS application. As I mentioned above, people tend to forget about some simple things that are easily fixable. It's important for you as a developer or administrator to educate your employees on what constitutes security and how to fix the security issues. It's also important for you as a developer or administrator to educate your employees on how they can help protect the application.

• About User Management

Another thing that is easily forgotten is user management. Most times, people will create accounts without giving any thought to what happens to those accounts. A good checklist for user management is as follows :

What are the responsibilities of each account? (e.g. What actions can they perform?) How do you verify that an account is valid? (e.g. Can it be verified by email address, phone number, etc.) How do you create new accounts? (e.g. Are they automatically created when a user signs up, or are they manually created?) What happens to an account after it is deleted?

The last point I want to make here is that we need to educate users on how important security is. Most people don't take security seriously, but we should because if we do not, then we will be the ones that suffer from a breach of our SaaS application.

3. Creating A Cohesive Security Culture

There are a few things that you can do to create a cohesive security culture. First, it's important for you as the developer or administrator to take time out of your day and go over what has been discussed in this article with everyone who will be working on the application.

Second, it's important for you to go over what has been discussed in this article with your employees. If they don't understand the importance of security, then they will not be able to do their jobs properly and will create more problems than solutions.

Lastly, it's important for you as a developer or administrator to educate your employees on how important security is. If you do not, then they will be the ones that suffer from a breach of their SaaS application.

4. Hiring Security Resource (Dedicated/Partially Dedicated)

There are two ways that you can go about hiring security resources for your SaaS application. The first way is to hire a dedicated security resource who will be responsible for the following :

Monitoring all the different parts of your application, including logs and dashboards Access to source code Run regular security scans on your application

The second way is to hire a partially dedicated security resource who will be responsible for the following :

Working with your team, especially during development Runs regular security scans on your application to make sure that they are keeping up with all of the latest threats. Identifies what type of security risk each part of your application is susceptible to. This could be as simple as having a script that will identify if the password used in an API call is too weak, or it could be as complex as identifying if any of the internal functions are vulnerable to SQL injection attacks.

If you go with the first option, then you will be paying a dedicated security resource. However, if you go with the second option, then you will be paying a partially dedicated security resource.

If you have multiple applications and they are running on different platforms (e.g., .NET and Java), then you will need to have a dedicated security resource for each platform. In addition, if your SaaS application is using different languages (e.g., Java and Python), then you will need a separate security resource for each language that it uses.

5. Educating Your Customers

The biggest thing that you can do to prevent a security incident is to educate your customers.

Educating your customers doesn't mean trying to be overbearing and telling them how they should use the application. It means educating them on what information they need from their SaaS application and helping them to keep that information secure.

One of the best ways to do this is by sending them a comprehensive security awareness training module. You can find some examples of these modules on OWASP's website, but they are usually written for web applications, so you will need to modify them if you are using a SaaS application.

If you are not able to find one of these modules, then I would recommend writing your own training module.

6. Enforcing Data Deletion Policy

When a SaaS application deletes data, it should do so in such a way that the user cannot recover it.

If you are using an open-source database, then you can use the UNIX command "rm -rf" to perform this task. However, if your application is using a proprietary database, then you will need to find the appropriate method for removing data.

If your application is using a third-party service that handles data deletion, then I would recommend performing an audit of that service and making sure it has proper deletion policies in place. You can use tools such as OWASP's Security and Assurance Maturity Model (SAMM) to find out how secure the service is.

7. Protecting Sensitive Data

There are a lot of different ways that you can protect sensitive data.

One way is to use encryption, which we covered in the previous section. Another way is to place your sensitive data in separate files and then only encrypt those files when they need to be accessed by other users.

If you are using a proprietary database, then you will need to find the appropriate method for protecting sensitive data.

8. Incorporating Security in the SDLC Process

Once you have completed the above steps, then you should be able to incorporate security into your software development lifecycle (SDLC).

In order to do this, you will need to ensure that developers are aware of security threats and how they can protect themselves. You will also need to create a process for developers to follow in order to test their code against security threats.

9. Securing Deployment

Once you have incorporated security into your SDLC, then you will need to deploy the application in a secure manner.

This means ensuring that all of the components are updated with patches and new versions are deployed as soon as they become available. It also means making sure that only authorized users can access the application.

10. Integrating Real-time Protection

Once you have integrated security into your SDLC, then you will need to ensure that real-time protection is in place.

This means that the application should be protected at all times against vulnerabilities and other threats. You can do this by ensuring that updates are installed automatically, patches are downloaded automatically, and any vulnerabilities are identified automatically.

11. Safeguarding Your Infrastructure

Another critical aspect is to protect your infrastructure and ensure that business continuity is not jeopardized.

Enabling firewalls and security groups, as well as setting and backing them up, would aid in business continuity in the event of assaults such as ransomware and denial of service (DoS). It can also assist to keep records to allow for the monitoring of suspicious activity.

12. Ensuring Compliance of Audits and Certifications

It is critical to consider certifications such as the PCI DSS. The certificates contribute to the total security of sensitive data.

To guarantee that sensitive data is completely safeguarded at all stages of storage, processing, and transfer, a SaaS provider must generally comply with standards and pass rigorous audits. Another regulatory compliance that might be useful is the SOC 2 Type II, which assures that the greatest degree of data security is maintained.

There are a lot of things that you need to consider and put in place before you launch your SaaS product. In this blog post, we've outlined some of the most important things that you should do before launching your SaaS product. The list includes some common areas that every SaaS company needs to address, such as user onboarding, security testing, and server setup. Take note of what is covered in this post and make sure to cover these points when setting up your own SaaS business!

FAQs:

Which one is better: on-premises or cloud-based server hosting service for my SaaS?

On-premises servers are a good choice for certain types of SaaS applications. For example, if you want to host a CRM or ERP application that will require high transaction volumes and access to highly sensitive data, then an on-premises solution is ideal. On the other hand, if you are planning to run a SaaS application that will be used by customers in multiple countries and is not highly sensitive data (such as your customer list), then an on-premises solution may not be suitable.

Which one is better: Windows or Linux?

Windows has been the most popular operating system in SaaS applications for a long time. However, many new-age SaaS providers have started to use Linux instead of Windows. Linux is more secure and has fewer vulnerabilities than Windows; therefore, it will be less likely that your customers' data will be compromised.

Which one is better: self-hosted or managed service?

Self-hosting is the preferred choice for most SaaS startup companies because it allows you to manage and control your own servers and network infrastructure. Managed services, on the other hand, provide greater scalability and security, but they require you to trust the provider. It is also more expensive than self-hosting because of all the additional costs associated with managing your own servers and network infrastructure.

What is the best way to secure my SaaS's data?

The best way to secure your SaaS's data is by encrypting it with a strong encryption algorithm. You can use either RSA or AES as the key length, but you should avoid using any one-time passwords (OTP) because they are easily compromised and will not provide adequate security. Also, it is a good idea to use a different password for each user.

Which security tools should I use to perform my security checks?

We recommend using a tool such as GetSecured.ai Secunia PSI or IPSet to perform your security checks.

What is the difference between vulnerability management and penetration testing?

Vulnerability management involves scanning for vulnerabilities in your SaaS application and patching them when necessary. Penetration testing involves trying to break into your SaaS application to test its security. Penetration testing is more effective at detecting vulnerabilities in a system than vulnerability management, but it is not as effective at patching them.

What are the most important security checks that you must do before launching your SaaS?

You should always patch all known vulnerabilities in your SaaS application. It is also a good idea to perform penetration testing on your SaaS, but make sure that you use a tool such as GetSecured.ai Secunia PSI or IPSet to test its security.

Which companies have been hacked?

Here are some examples of companies that have been hacked: The US government, the UK government, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Adobe Systems Inc., Target Corporation, Yahoo! Inc., and eBay.

Should I use AWS, Azure, or Heroku for hosting my SaaS?

It depends on your needs. AWS is a great choice for new SaaS applications because it offers a lot of flexibility and is easy to use. Azure also provides an excellent platform, but it does not offer as much flexibility as AWS. Heroku also has some nice features, but it can be more difficult to use than AWS or Azure.

Some people might even suggest Google Cloud Platform ( GCP ) but it is not as good as AWS or Azure.

PS: Thanks to PitchGround for giving me an opportunity to write this using Scalenut