Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) security posture management (SSPM) is a category of automated cybersecurity technologies used to monitor SaaS applications for security threats.
SSPM technologies examine user permissions, compliance, and configuration settings in SaaS apps on a regular basis to identify vulnerabilities and instantly alert security teams. Some SSPM solutions can even eliminate these risks automatically by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
SaaS security differs from typical network security in that SaaS applications are hosted remotely, putting them substantially outside the authority of an enterprise. Furthermore, because SaaS apps may be accessed via the internet and from nearly any device, the risk of an unauthorized user accessing data increases.
Why is SSPM important?
As enterprises move workloads and sensitive data into SaaS apps, the risk of accidental exposure, overly permissive entitlements, non-compliance, and threats like malware remain significant challenges.
SaaS applications hold untold amounts of sensitive data and oftentimes vendors lack the expertise or resources to develop all the requisite security policies for their users. Manual SaaS security demands considerable SaaS expertise as well as an impractical time commitment for even the most experienced teams. It is incredibly difficult to develop and enforce these various security standards uniformly across applications and users.
SSPM streamlines this process by continuously evaluating SaaS application settings against pre-built policy profiles that map to industry standards. SSPM improves SaaS security by automating this procedure. As more sensitive data migrates to cloud apps, the relevance of SSPM will only grow.