August 8, 2024 at 09:06AM
Security researchers at Black Hat USA 2024 highlighted the evolving threat landscape for organizations due to the expanded use of SaaS applications. They revealed that attackers are leveraging valid credentials to breach SaaS environments, bypassing traditional cyber kill chain steps. It’s crucial for security teams to reassess defenses and implement a zero-trust access model for SaaS applications.
From the meeting notes, the key takeaway is that the increased use of SaaS applications has transformed the attack surface for organizations, providing adversaries with new and easier ways to target enterprise applications and data. Adversaries often gain access to SaaS applications through externally facing identity providers and are able to exploit valid credentials to freely access the applications without having to go through the traditional steps of reconnaissance and lateral movement. It is crucial for security teams to revise and readjust their defenses to keep ahead of this new reality and enforce a zero-trust access model to SaaS applications. Better visibility across SaaS environments, understanding of the attack surface, and leveraging features like MFA and hardware tokens are also essential for protecting against SaaS attacks.