Cloud computing services provide organizations with several capabilities, including the ability to provide SaaS solutions. However, securing your SaaS applications hosted on a public cloud with an end-to-end, security solution is an uphill task. This can be attributed to the fact that you have limited control over the infrastructure or the type of security solution deployed over your application. It becomes crucial to cover application vulnerabilities and protect them from data breaches and other attacks. Here are a few points you could follow to improve SaaS application security.
1. Include security in the SDLC
In a rush to meet deadlines, most engineers tend to overlook the importance of application security and focus instead on its capabilities. This oversight might leave your application vulnerable to attacks. Therefore, include application security in the SDLC along with development. If you are following the Agile or DevOps methodology, ensure that security patches are part of every release’s guidelines.
2. Give importance to compliance certificates
Ensure that your SaaS service providers have the necessary certifications for safe application development. These certificates require them to perform careful audits to ensure your data and applications are safe and protected at all times. These certificates also require them to bring network architecture, application development, policies and data migration into their security scope.
3. Perform rigorous vulnerability tests
Request for the latest, high-end vulnerability and incident response tools in your cloud service provider’s arsenal. We suggest going for fully automated testing solutions which can assess system and application weaknesses. Once again, if you are working based on Agile and DevOps, we suggest performing a vulnerability test with every release.
4. Enforce user-level data and application security
This includes security measures which would be deployed when a user, client or employee tries to gain access to your application. You could use an identity and access management tool which allows you to keep in place a password policy, multi-factor authentication and other similar provisions. This will ensure that only those who are authorized to use your application can have access to it.
5. Opt for virtual private clouds
Even if you choose to build and host your SaaS application with public cloud service providers like Amazon AWS, you can still subscribe to a virtual private cloud which gives you more control over your data than a public cloud. Should you choose to go for this, an encrypted internet protocol security (IPsec) VPN connection routes traffic to and from the instances in your virtual private cloud.
The benefits of choosing a SaaS model, when complemented by a robust application security plan, can do wonders for your operational efficiency. At CloudNow Technologies, we apply our expertise in cloud security to provide cloud consulting services to help you identify the right security solutions that your SaaS applications need. To know more, get in touch with us now.
