The Annual SaaS Security Report: 2025 CISO Plans and Priorities

The Annual SaaS Security Report: 2025 CISO Plans and Priorities

June 18, 2024 at 07:30AM

Organizations are increasingly prioritizing investment in SaaS security, with 70% establishing dedicated teams and boosting budgets and headcount, according to the Cloud Security Alliance’s “2025 CISO Plans and Priorities” survey. The report highlights improved security capabilities but also challenges in achieving visibility into business-critical apps. The adoption of SaaS Security Posture Management is identified as beneficial.

Key Takeaways from the Meeting Notes:

1. Increased Investment in SaaS Security: Despite economic instability and job cuts, organizations have significantly increased investment in SaaS security, with a 56% increase in SaaS security staff and a 39% increase in budgets in 2023.

2. Growing Importance of SaaS Security: The survey highlights that SaaS security has surged to the forefront of corporate agendas, with 80% of organizations prioritizing SaaS security, and 70% having established dedicated SaaS security teams.

3. Improved Security Capabilities: Organizations have made significant strides in improving key SaaS security capabilities, with 62% now considering their SaaS security posture to be moderately to highly mature. Visibility into the SaaS stack has also increased, with 70% of organizations having moderate to full visibility into their SaaS applications.

4. Ongoing Challenges: Despite improvements, organizations still face challenges in SaaS security efforts, with achieving visibility into business-critical apps and managing security risks from third-party connected apps being top concerns.

5. Positive Trend in Security Incidents: The survey identified a positive trend where 25% of respondents experienced a SaaS security incident in the past two years, compared with 53% in the previous year, demonstrating that the investment in SaaS security is paying off.

6. Importance of SSPM: Adoption of SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) is highlighted as a factor in enhancing an organization’s SaaS security, with SSPM users faring better in handling SaaS security challenges compared to those using other tools.

Overall, the meeting notes demonstrate a positive momentum in SaaS security strategy, with organizations prioritizing efforts in SaaS security and the integration of SSPM as a key factor in enhancing SaaS security.

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