Why Attackers Are Targeting Your SaaS Stack—And What to Do About It

More SaaS, More Risk

SaaS powers everything—from onboarding and collaboration to finance, CRM, and product delivery. But with convenience comes complexity. And complexity, in the eyes of attackers, is opportunity.

Today, the average company uses over 300 SaaS applications. Security teams, meanwhile, are expected to monitor only a fraction of them—typically the well-known ones, like Salesforce, Slack, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365.

The problem? The apps you’re not looking at often hold just as much value to attackers.

The result? Massive SaaS sprawl—an ever-growing maze of tools, logins, and access points that are easy to lose track of and hard to secure.

The Risks No One's Watching

It’s easy to overlook tools like project boards, diagram tools, or shared file drives. After all, they’re not labeled “mission critical.” But in many cases, they hold:

• Customer data and roadmaps
• Credentials to infrastructure
• Financial models, contracts, and unreleased IP

This is how breaches begin—not with malware, but with forgotten apps, misconfigured settings, and dormant access.

Take collaboration platforms, for example. A misconfigured design tool can leave internal architecture diagrams and security workflows publicly accessible to anyone with the link. No malware, no exploit—just a simple oversight in file sharing.

It didn’t take a nation-state to get in. It just takes someone clicking “anyone with the link can view.”

Why SaaS Makes Attackers’ Jobs Easier

SaaS has become the new attack surface—and it's easier to exploit than you think.

Most SaaS apps don’t enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) by default.

In fact, outside of Microsoft and Google, the majority of SaaS tools used by businesses have weak or optional MFA controls.

Even worse, anyone in the company can connect a new tool, authorize it with wide access, and start feeding it sensitive data—without security ever knowing.

Once attackers get in through a single SaaS app, the dominoes start falling:

Let’s break it down:

• A sales rep logs into a scheduling tool using a reused password.
• The app doesn’t support MFA, and no one reviewed its OAuth scopes.
• The attacker uses that entry to exfiltrate calendar data, email contacts, and shared meeting links.
• They craft a convincing phishing email that looks like it came from your CEO.
• The attacker gains access to your finance platform.
• Invoices are modified. Payouts are rerouted. Your team doesn’t notice for days.
• Then comes the ransomware note: "We have your data. Pay $2 million in crypto, or it gets published."

This is not a hypothetical. This is how modern breaches unfold—without malware, without exploits, and without triggering your EDR.

And the worst part? Most companies only discover it after the damage is done.

Why Your Stack Needs Identity-Level Visibility

Attackers don’t care which app they get in through—they care what it gives them access to. That’s why every app matters.

Here’s what we recommend at FrontierZero:

1. Map Every Identity and App

You can’t secure what you can’t see. Get a real-time inventory of every connected SaaS app—authorized or not—and the users (and bots) accessing them.

2. Monitor Access Continuously

Look for anomalous logins, missing MFA, and over-permissioned roles. If a marketing intern still has access to payroll, that’s a problem.

3. Audit and Harden Configurations

SaaS defaults aren’t built for security. Ensure apps are properly configured to minimize exposure—and catch when those configs drift.

4. Deprovision Immediately

Don’t wait for quarterly access reviews. When someone leaves, their access should go with them. Automate this wherever possible.

5. Treat All Apps Like they are “Mission Critical”

Whether it’s Jira, Miro, or Notion—if it has sensitive data, it needs security oversight.

What FrontierZero Does Differently

At FrontierZero, we built a SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) platform with one goal: to make the invisible, visible.

• Continuous discovery of all SaaS identities—human and non-human
• Live tracking of MFA, OAuth tokens, and risky integrations
• Alerts for suspicious logins, access drift, and unused accounts
• Compliance-ready reports for SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIS2, and more

You don’t need to guess who has access. You don’t need to hope that the configs haven’t changed.

With FrontierZero, you know.

Final Thoughts

SaaS security isn’t just about protecting Salesforce or Google Drive. It’s about protecting the entire digital ecosystem—from the tools everyone sees to the ones no one’s watching.

Shadow apps. Weak MFA. Orphaned tokens. These aren’t technicalities—they’re open doors.

Attackers thrive in the shadows. It’s time to shine a light on your SaaS stack.

👉 See your SaaS risk in 15 minutes with a free FrontierZero trial