A large number of companies could be putting their data at risk by failing to properly secure their SaaS environments, new research from DoControl has warned.
Its report (opens in new tab) found that large companies (between 1,001 to 6,696 employees) and medium companies (between 50 to 1,000 employees) store 5.5 million and 1.5 million assets respectively in SaaS applications.
Another significant number is how many activities occur each week, which it estimates is 2,775,000 for large businesses and 55,750 for medium businesses. The problem occurs when workers take reckless steps that put company information at risk.
Risks of SaaS
Manually tracking sensitive assets has long been a company’s greatest nightmare, and DoControl reckons it has become even more of a task. This is because nearly two-thirds (61%) of companies have employees who have shared company-owned assets with their personal email, according to its research.
There are also decisions made by the business itself that could be putting data at risk. Sharing information with third-party companies does not guarantee that they will comply with the same data protection measures that your company has put in place.
Business leaders may even be at fault for failing to maintain permissions in online collaboration software, which some workers may no longer require. This can be made worse by files that remain shared with previous workers who are no longer with the company.
DoControl explains: “According to Gartner, 60% of organizations will use cybersecurity risk as a significant determinant in conducting third-party transactions and business engagements by 2025.”
It’s clear, though, that companies need to start work on tidying up their SaaS environments sooner rather than later to ensure that the utmost control is obtained – and maintained.
