Connecting apps to a SaaS stack is almost second nature to some people. Users can extend the form-building capabilities of Google Docs with tools like Automatic Forms, use Pixabay Free Images to import images, and PlagiarismCheck.org to verify text is original. increase. Done in no time without having to rethink security considerations.
In its latest report, Uncovering the risks and realities of third-party connected apps, Adaptive Shield digs deeper into these third-party apps. This report uses anonymized customer data collected from over 200 tenants to help security teams better understand both the breadth and depth of this issue.
This report appears to answer three key questions.
- How many third-party apps are connected to your company’s SaaS stack?
- What kind of permissions are these apps requesting?
- How real are the risks posed by connected apps?
lots of connectivity
There are two main factors that drive app usage. It’s the number of SaaS users and whether your company uses Microsoft 365 or Google Workplace.
The number of apps grew with the number of SaaS users, regardless of which platform they used. His 10,000 Microsoft 365 SaaS users used an average of 2,033 third-party apps. Companies of similar size using Google have an average of 6,710 apps. These numbers varied significantly based on the number of his SaaS users in the company.
Figure 1. Average number of apps users have integrated with Google Workspace.Source: Adaptive Shield
User grants important privileges
This report divides app-scoped risk levels into three categories: low, medium, and high. For the Google Workspace app, the classification follows Google’s definitions of moderate and high sensitivity and restricted ranges, and these criteria were applied to apps in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Nearly 80% of all apps connecting to Google Workspace were considered a medium risk level. Low-risk apps accounted for 11% of connected apps, as did high-risk apps.
An app that connects to Microsoft is very risky, meaning it requested a much more invasive set of permissions than the app requested from Google. In contrast to Google, 39% of Microsoft connected apps requested high risk scopes. 28% were moderate and 33% were low.
Figure 2. Risk levels for M365 and Google Workspace connected apps.Source: Adaptive Shield
What you can do with SaaS-to-SaaS apps
Many applications have wide berths based on the scope of permissions granted. At Microsoft, 27% of high-scope applications can read, update, create, and delete content. The app is given full access to the mailbox and can send emails as the user.
Google Workspace’s high-risk app permissions are equally troublesome. 78% of the high-risk scope grants the app permission to view, edit, create, or delete some or all files, emails, and documents in Google Drive.
Figure 3. Top risky permissions requested by M365 and Google Workspace connected apps.Source: Adaptive Shield
These permissions pose a significant risk to corporate data as apps can be hijacked by threat actors to steal, encrypt, or expose any data they find.
Key points of the report
Reading the data, it’s clear that security teams need to improve their visibility into connected SaaS applications. Thousands of connected apps pose risks to business-critical data, many of which are beyond the sight of security teams.
A SaaS security solution like Adaptive Shield gives security teams their best hope of protecting this attack surface. Gain complete visibility into the apps connected to your application and the scope of permissions granted to them. With this data, security teams can make informed decisions about each application to maintain data integrity and security.
Download your free copy of Cross-SaaS Access Report See what’s hidden in SaaS.
