Best SaaS Security Tools

An average organization uses 130 SaaS applications to maintain functionality (source: Statista). Employees across the board access these applications by inserting their credentials. 

Some of the users stay logged in for prolonged periods of time, while some never log out. Businesses run with apps that have updates pending and employees have access to applications that they’ll never need. 

Each of these third-party applications can be a potential security threat. So even if you do not consider the security loopholes that might exist in a software company’s own codebase, there is quite enough to worry about.   

In this post, we’ll discuss the best SaaS security tools that can help you deal with the security ordeal that running a business is because no amount of cautiousness, employee training, and policy making can lead to an absolutely impenetrable security posture in 2023.

Why does a business need SaaS Security Tools?

If not anything else, human error gives you away. A report by Verizon showed that 74% data breaches involved the human element – phishing, social engineering, unwitting exposure, willing sabotage.

It is impossible to handle security manually unless you have unlimited resources to throw at it. You need firewalls and malware scanners to make sure that nothing malicious makes into the systems. Implementing insider threat solutions can be a crucial step in safeguarding sensitive data within an organization 

You also need regular vulnerability scans to ensure your website is not carrying easily exploitable security loopholes. And, once or twice in a year, you need security experts to check each nook and cranny of your digital existence for potential openings – a penetration test. 

List of the top 11 SaaS security tools for 2023

• Astra Security
• Cloudflare
• Orca Security
• Zscaler
• Lookout 
• Wordfence
• Okta Identity Management
• Intruder
• Cobalt
• Skyhigh Security
• Detectify

The 11 best SaaS security tools – detailed review

Here we’ll explore the key features offered by SaaS security tools and how they can help you improve your organization’s security posture. Some of these tools might make more sense for your specific business needs than the others. 

1. Astra Security

Astra Security offers a comprehensive security testing suite that includes a vulnerability scanner, a vulnerability management dashboard, a manual pentest component, and pentest certification. It is a one stop solution for proactive security requirements.

Feature Highlights

Combination of automated and manual pentest

Astra has a state-of-the-art automated vulnerability scanner that can identify, categorize, and prognose a wide array of security vulnerabilities. 

But there are some security issues like business logic errors that are virtually untraceable by any automated scanner. Astra brings in the manual pentest component for such issues. Security experts perform in depth penetration testing to shed light on all vulnerabilities.

CI/CD integration

Astra’s automated vulnerability scanner can be integrated with your CI/CD pipeline. That means you can run continuous automated scans to ensure any vulnerable code is ever sent to production. This feature really brings the idea of DevSecOps home.

Scan behind the login pages

Astra has a login recorder extension for Chrome which lets you record the authentication of the scanner. Once you do that, the scanner can do its job continuously without requiring you to authenticate you every time a session runs out. 

If you have used an automated vulnerability scanner before, you’d know how important this feature is.

Vulnerability management dashboard

The reporting dashboard offered by Astra takes the hassle away from vulnerability management. It allows you to monitor results of vulnerability scans, lets you prioritize vulnerabilities in terms of resource allocation, helps you monitor the progress made on specific vulnerabilities, and communicate with security experts.

Contextual collaboration

Thanks to this feature, your developers can discuss the roadblocks they face during the remediation process with Astra’s security experts while sharing the same documents. 

1. Cloudflare

Cloudflare is a renowned cloud-based security solution that helps secure everything you connect to the internet. Their “197 Tbps network blocks an average of 112 billion threats per day.” The company has created a global network architecture that allows every service on every server to pass through it. 

Feature Highlights

DDoS mitigation

Cloudflare is highly rated for its ability to thwart distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It comes with an easy setup and an award winning customer support.

Faster apps and websites

Cloudflare caches your website’s static content on their global network. It compresses dynamic content, optimizes image files, and passes requests through the least congested paths to bring them to the customers faster and more securely.

Data driven security

Cloudflare deals with millions of HTTP requests every second which gives them a rare insight into risks. Their machine learning engines are fed with an outstanding amount of data. The data ensures there are fewer false positives.

1. Orca Security

Orca Security is a platform focused on cloud infrastructure security. It comes with services like cloud security posture management, cloud workload security, container security, API security and more.

Feature Highlights

24/7 monitoring of cloud attack surfaces

Orca helps you detect, investigate, and remediate cloud security threats. It combines cloud provider logs and threat intelligence feeds. By forming correlation between the information and the location of a target’s valuable assets, the platform detects security threats.

Multi-cloud compliance

Orca ensures that your company is aligned with the compliance policies set by all the cloud providers you use and it does that continuously.

Agentless cloud security

Orca applies their trademarked SideScanning technology to perform agentless cloud workload reviews. They take data from the workload’s runtime blocks and create a read-only view of the data by reconstructing the workload’s file system.

1. Zscaler 

Zscaler uses a zero trust architecture to help users connect to resources securely. This security suite contains three different products – Zscaler Internet Access, Zscaler Private Access, and Zscaler Digital Experience.

Feature Highlights   

Zero trust cloud connectivity

This reduces cloud attack surface using least privilege access. Lateral movement between workloads is prevented to increase security. 

AI-driven malware protection

This feature is for end users. Zscaler’s malware prevention engine, Sandbox, quarantines suspicious files before they reach users, improving security.

1. Lookout

Lookout, which acquired CipherCloud not long ago, is a zero trust cloud security provider. It combines the principle of zero trust with endpoint security and Security Service Edge (SSE) to create an integrated security solution.

Feature Highlights

Secure private access

This feature verifies the identity as well as security posture of users and grants access to apps only to authorized users. This applies for both apps stored on-prem and on the cloud.

Monitoring the risk posed by mobile phones

Lookout uses telemetry to gain visibility into the risk posed by mobile usage. It protects against threats on managed and unmanaged mobile devices and prevents credential thefts and MFA compromises.

1. Wordfence

Wordfence is a security solution composed specifically for WordPress sites. The organization consists of WordPress security analysts, threat researchers, and engineers. It provides around the clock support for mission critical websites with a one hour response time. It comes with an easy-to-use plugin and a free version.

Feature Highlights

Wordfence firewall

Data is the key strength of Wordfence. Their threat intelligence team continuously detects and analyzes vulnerabilities in WordPress core, themes, and plugins, based on data coming from a vast array of users. The vulnerabilities are immediately added to the firewall’s rules to enhance the quality of intrusion prevention. However, the firewall rules come to the free version with a 30-day delay.

Wordfence Central

Wordfence offers a platform which you can use to deploy template-based security configurations for multiple WordPress sites and monitor their security posture. It saves time as you can administer security for all your sites from a single platform. 

1. Okta Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Okta is an identity and access management solution which has separate offerings for customer identity management and workforce identity management. It allows users to access everything using their identity securely.

Feature Highlights

Smart MFA

Okta has created a smart and adaptive multifactor authentication system that takes contexts like network, location, IP, and device into account while running the authentication process. It even integrates external inputs from vendors about certain IPs to keep the wrong people out.

Automated provisioning and deprovisioning

Okta removes the hassle of manually providing new employees with access to work tools and then rescinding access when they no longer need it or leave the company. Auto provisioning helps employees get up and running faster and frees up the IT team.

1. Intruder

Intruder is a vulnerability management and security testing platform with offerings like internal and external vulnerability scanning, attack surface monitoring, cloud vulnerability scanning, etc.

Feature Highlights

Monitoring your external perimeter

Intruder helps you monitor what you expose to the internet. It notifies you whenever something changes – a network port opens or a service changes. If unnoticed these changes can lead to security risks. 

API security scans

Intruder lets you run tailored API scans covering the OWASP top 10 API security list. It identifies misconfigurations and injections among other issues.

1. Cobalt

Cobalt is a Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS platform) that connects you to a community of pentesters and security experts. They promote a data-driven pentest and remediation cycle. Through real-time collaboration with pentesters, you can accelerate the testing process.

Feature Highlights

Agile pentest

This involves a localized pentest with a small scope that traces a specific vulnerability across an asset or tests a specific area of an asset. It comes with faster and focused results intended to help agile teams move faster with development.

1. Skyhigh Security

Skyhigh Security is a well-rounded security solution for enterprises. The company helps businesses with web, data, network, and cloud security with a focus on enterprise cloud data protection. It creates a unified security framework for cloud, web, and network level protection.

Feature Highlights 

Secure operationalization of AI apps

Businesses are growing reliant on generative AI applications. Skyhigh addresses the risk of sanctioning AI apps and provides the same level of protection for AI apps as other sanctioned apps.

ZTNA remote access to users

Skyhigh helps your remote employees to securely access on-premise or cloud-based company resources through a Zero trust network access protocol that microsegments network resources and grants access based on the principle of least privilege. 

Unified data protection and incident response

Skyhigh enables a centralized data loss prevention (DLP) program to allow you continuous visibility of your data on devices, in the cloud, and in transit. It also comes with a centralized incident response system.

1. Detectify

Detectify is an attack surface monitoring and application scanning solution that scales smoothly with your growing enterprise. It can monitor your internet-facing assets and scan your apps for vulnerabilities.

Feature Highlights

Easy set up

It is extremely easy to get started with the Detectify external attack surface monitoring platform. All you need to do is add your domain and it will start monitoring all subdomains and applications.

Customizable security policies 

This newly launched feature allows security teams to set custom policies to raise alerts for breaches in policies that are specific to the team or the company. This is a great addition considering how it will enable security teams to work more efficiently.

Conclusion 

We’ve tried to cover a wide range of SaaS security tools with varying capacities. Some are great for application security testing, some are better suited for cloud-infrastructure analysis, whereas some serve specific purposes like establishing zero trust. 

The features we’ve highlighted do not convey the entire scope of the tools, they rather bring forth qualities that are often missed-out, lost in the middle of a lot of information. Now you know what each of these tools does best. Choose one that fits your specific business needs. Invest wisely in security.