SaaS Security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

In SaaS security conversations, "misconfiguration" and "vulnerability" are often used interchangeably. But they're not the same thing. And misunderstanding that distinction can quietly create real exposure. This confusion isn't just semantics. It reflects a deeper misunderstanding of the shared responsibility model, particularly in SaaS environments where the line between vendor and customer responsibility is often unclear. A Quick Breakdown Vulnerabilities are flaws in the codebase of the SaaS platform itself. These are issues only the vendor can patch. Think zero-days and code-level exploits. Misconfigurations , on the other hand, are user-controlled. They result from how the platform is set up—who has access, what integrations are connected, and what policies are enforced (or not). A misconfiguration might look like a third-party app with excessive access, or a sensitive internal site that is accidentally public. A Shared Model, but Split Responsibilities Most SaaS providers...

Everyone's an IT decision-maker now. The employees in your organization can install a plugin with just one click, and they don't need to clear it with your team first. It's great for productivity, but it's a serious problem for your security posture. When the floodgates of SaaS and AI opened, IT didn't just get democratized, its security got outpaced. Employees are onboarding apps faster than security teams can say, "We need to check this out first." The result is a sprawling mess of shadow IT, embedded AI, and OAuth permissions that would make any CISO break into a cold sweat. Here are five ways IT democratization can undermine your organization's security posture and how to prevent it from doing so. 1. You can't secure what you can't see Remember when IT security used to control what was allowed to pass the firewall? Good times. Today, anyone can find an app to do the heavy lifting for them. They won't notice or care when the app requires access to your company's Google Drive or...

Until recently, the cyber attacker methodology behind the biggest breaches of the last decade or so has been pretty consistent: Compromise an endpoint via software exploit, or social engineering a user to run malware on their device;  Find ways to move laterally inside the network and compromise privileged identities; Repeat as needed until you can execute your desired attack — usually stealing data from file shares, deploying ransomware, or both.  But attacks have fundamentally changed as networks have evolved. With the SaaS-ification of enterprise IT, core business systems aren't locally deployed and centrally managed in the way they used to be. Instead, they're logged into over the internet, and accessed via a web browser. Attacks have shifted from targeting local networks to SaaS services, accessed through employee web browsers. Under the shared responsibility model, the part that's left to the business consuming a SaaS service is mostly constrained to how they ma...

While phishing and ransomware dominate headlines, another critical risk quietly persists across most enterprises: exposed Git repositories leaking sensitive data. A risk that silently creates shadow access into core systems Git is the backbone of modern software development, hosting millions of repositories and serving thousands of organizations worldwide. Yet, amid the daily hustle of shipping code, developers may inadvertently leave behind API keys, tokens, or passwords in configuration files and code files, effectively handing attackers the keys to the kingdom. This isn't just about poor hygiene; it's a systemic and growing supply chain risk. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, so do compliance requirements. Security frameworks like NIS2, SOC2, and ISO 27001 now demand proof that software delivery pipelines are hardened and third-party risk is controlled. The message is clear: securing your Git repositories is no longer optional, it's essential. Below, we look at the ris...

Generative AI is not arriving with a bang, it's slowly creeping into the software that companies already use on a daily basis. Whether it is video conferencing or CRM, vendors are scrambling to integrate AI copilots and assistants into their SaaS applications. Slack can now provide AI summaries of chat threads, Zoom can provide meeting summaries, and office suites such as Microsoft 365 contain AI assistance in writing and analysis. This trend of AI usage implies that the majority of businesses are awakening to a new reality: AI capabilities have spread across their SaaS stack overnight, with no centralized control. A recent survey found 95% of U.S. companies are now using generative AI, up massively in just one year. Yet this unprecedented usage comes tempered by growing anxiety. Business leaders have begun to worry about where all this unseen AI activity might lead. Data security and privacy have quickly emerged as top concerns, with many fearing that sensitive information could le...

From overprivileged admin roles to long-forgotten vendor tokens, these attackers are slipping through the cracks of trust and access. Here's how five retail breaches unfolded, and what they reveal about... In recent months, major retailers like Adidas, The North Face, Dior, Victoria's Secret, Cartier, Marks & Spencer, and Co‑op have all been breached. These attacks weren't sophisticated malware or zero-day exploits. They were identity-driven, exploiting overprivileged access and unmonitored service accounts, and used the human layer through tactics like social engineering. Attackers didn't need to break in. They logged in. They moved through SaaS apps unnoticed, often using real credentials and legitimate sessions. And while most retailers didn't share all the technical details, the patterns are clear and recurring.  Here's a breakdown of the five recent high-profile breaches in retail: 1. Adidas: Exploiting third-party trust Adidas confirmed a data breach caused by an ...

Despite years of investment in Zero Trust, SSE, and endpoint protection, many enterprises are still leaving one critical layer exposed: the browser. It's where 85% of modern work now happens. It's also where copy/paste actions, unsanctioned GenAI usage, rogue extensions, and personal devices create a risk surface that most security stacks weren't designed to handle. For security leaders who know this blind spot exists but lack a roadmap to fix it, a new framework may help. The Secure Enterprise Browser Maturity Guide: Safeguarding the Last Mile of Enterprise Risk , authored by cybersecurity researcher Francis Odum, offers a pragmatic model to help CISOs and security teams assess, prioritize, and operationalize browser-layer security. It introduces a clear progression from basic visibility to real-time enforcement and ecosystem integration, built around real-world threats, organizational realities, and evolving user behavior. Why the Browser Has Become the Security Blind Spot Over ...

New research has uncovered continued risk from a known security weakness in Microsoft's Entra ID , potentially enabling malicious actors to achieve account takeovers in susceptible software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. Identity security company Semperis, in an analysis of 104 SaaS applications, found nine of them to be vulnerable to Entra ID cross-tenant nOAuth abuse. First disclosed by Descope in June 2023, nOAuth refers to a weakness in how SaaS applications implement OpenID Connect ( OIDC ), which refers to an authentication layer built atop OAuth to verify a user's identity. The authentication implementation flaw essentially allows a bad actor to change the mail attribute in the Entra ID account to that of a victim's and take advantage of the app's "Log in with Microsoft" feature to hijack that account. The attack is trivial, but it also works because Entra ID permits users to have an unverified email address, opening the door to user imperson...

Most cyberattacks today don't start with loud alarms or broken firewalls. They start quietly—inside tools and websites your business already trusts. It's called " Living Off Trusted Sites " (LOTS)—and it's the new favorite strategy of modern attackers. Instead of breaking in, they blend in. Hackers are using well-known platforms like Google, Microsoft, Dropbox, and Slack as launchpads. They hide malicious code inside routine traffic, making it incredibly difficult for traditional defenses to detect them. And here's the scary part: many security teams don't even realize it's happening—until it's too late. Why You're Not Seeing These Attacks LOTS tactics don't look suspicious at first glance. There's no malware signature to flag, and no unusual IP address to trace. It's legitimate traffic—until it's not. Attackers are exploiting: Common business tools like Teams, Zoom, and GitHub Shortened or vanity URLs to redirect users Trusted cloud services to host malicious payloads ...

AI is changing everything — from how we code, to how we sell, to how we secure. But while most conversations focus on what AI can do, this one focuses on what AI can break — if you're not paying attention. Behind every AI agent, chatbot, or automation script lies a growing number of non-human identities — API keys, service accounts, OAuth tokens — silently operating in the background. And here's the problem: 🔐 They're invisible 🧠 They're powerful 🚨 They're unsecured In traditional identity security, we protect users. With AI, we've quietly handed over control to software that impersonates users — often with more access, fewer guardrails, and no oversight. This isn't theoretical. Attackers are already exploiting these identities to: Move laterally through cloud infrastructure Deploy malware via automation pipelines Exfiltrate data — without triggering a single alert Once compromised, these identities can silently unlock critical systems. You don't get a second cha...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered over 20 configuration-related risks affecting Salesforce Industry Cloud (aka Salesforce Industries ), exposing sensitive data to unauthorized internal and external parties. The weaknesses affect various components like FlexCards, Data Mappers, Integration Procedures (IProcs), Data Packs, OmniOut, and OmniScript Saved Sessions. "Low-code platforms such as Salesforce Industry Cloud make building applications easier, but that convenience can come at a cost if security isn't prioritized," Aaron Costello, chief of SaaS Security Research at AppOmni, said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. These misconfigurations, if left unaddressed, could allow cybercriminals and unauthorized to access encrypted confidential data on employees and customers, session data detailing how users have interacted with Salesforce Industry Cloud, credentials for Salesforce and other company systems, and business logic. Following responsible discl...

You don't need a rogue employee to suffer a breach. All it takes is a free trial that someone forgot to cancel. An AI-powered note-taker quietly syncing with your Google Drive. A personal Gmail account tied to a business-critical tool. That's shadow IT. And today, it's not just about unsanctioned apps, but also dormant accounts, unmanaged identities, over-permissioned SaaS tools, and orphaned access. Most of it slips past even the most mature security solutions. Think your CASB or IdP covers this? It doesn't. They weren't built to catch what's happening inside SaaS: OAuth sprawl, shadow admins, GenAI access, or apps created directly in platforms like Google Workspace or Slack. Shadow IT is no longer a visibility issue - it's a full-blown attack surface. Wing Security helps security teams uncover these risks before they become incidents.  Here are 5 real-world examples of shadow IT that could be quietly bleeding your data. 1. Dormant acces...

Traditional data leakage prevention (DLP) tools aren't keeping pace with the realities of how modern businesses use SaaS applications. Companies today rely heavily on SaaS platforms like Google Workspace, Salesforce, Slack, and generative AI tools, significantly altering the way sensitive information is handled. In these environments, data rarely appears as traditional files or crosses networks in ways endpoint or network-based DLP tools can monitor. Yet, most companies continue using legacy DLP systems, leaving critical security gaps. A new white paper, Rethinking DLP For The SaaS Era: Why Browser-Centric DLP is the New Mandate , identifies precisely why current DLP methods struggle to secure modern SaaS-driven workflows. It also explores how browser-native security addresses these gaps by focusing security efforts exactly where user interactions occur, in the browser. Why Traditional DLP Tools Fall Short Traditional DLP solutions were built for a simpler time when sensitive...