One misconfigured Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) integration can expose as much data as a full-blown breach. Most companies have hundreds of integrations that they never review.
There was once a time, not so long ago, when firewalls were the corporate perimeter and nearly all data flowed through them, allowing IT security full visibility and control. Today SaaS is dominant, from small businesses to large enterprises, with the latter managing between 100 and 300 SaaS applications. This explosion of cloud-based tools has created many blind spots, such as application programming interfaces (APIs). These connectors enable software systems to communicate, and they represent a security issue that is only now being addressed by security teams.
APIs: The Invisible Security Gap
Every time one application “talks” to another, it happens through the rules, protocols, and permissions of an API. These digital connectors are the hidden backbone of SaaS productivity, and a growing source of risk. APIs are what allow SaaS applications to integrate, and API keys are the credentials used to authenticate these data exchanges. An API key is the equivalent of a username and password for app-to-app communication, and the security tends to be very weak. Often, the keys are static (not rotated and don’t expire), lack fine-grained privileges, are embedded in code or logs, and are forgotten. While there are controls that can be used to mitigate or eliminate these risks, many of the applications using API keys have “shadow integrations.” These are connections set up and managed by application teams without IT or security knowledge or oversight.
Shadow IT vs Shadow Integrations
Shadow IT is simply the use of any technology such as hardware, software, or cloud services, without the IT department’s explicit knowledge or approval. While not strictly defined, “shadow integrations” often refer to connections between known applications or platforms without IT’s knowledge or approval.
Donna is a sales executive with access to the company’s customer relationship management (CRM) software. She’s used to working in Power BI, so she creates an API key in the CRM and follows simple instructions to finish the integration to her own Power BI dashboard.
In the example, Donna has used two corporate-approved pieces of software, Power BI and the CRM, but the connection would be a shadow integration. With this simple integration, once the data leaves the CRM, data loss prevention (DLP), access control, and audit logging stop applying. Other risks are also possible, such as the key remaining active after Donna leaves the company (“zombie: API key), or that key being compromised because she stored it incorrectly.
Without proper governance and control strategies these common, yet often invisible integrations pose an ever-increasing risk to organizations.
Governance tools and strategies
Companies have large variations in their budgets and maturity of their IT security programs. Here are a few foundational and impactful things that any company can do without purchasing anything:
- Build a SaaS governance framework
- Regularly rotate and audit API keys
- Limit API scopes and setup policy-based access controls
- User education on safe integration practices and data handling
- Integrate security checks into onboarding of new SaaS
- Define a review period for existing SaaS
Good policies and procedures can significantly help organizations, but often in enterprises, software solutions are required to address the size, scale or complexity of their environment.
SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) tools are modern solutions which can monitor security settings and configurations, detect new or unused connections or accounts, and flag suspicious activity. SSPMs offer deeper more customized security that accounts for the unique security of individual SaaS applications.
Whether improving security policy and education, or deploying new security solutions, organizations need to take proper steps to address the issues with the sprawl of SaaS.
Data-Centric Security
Shadow integrations are typically not malicious. Often it is users trying to get data from one application to another to do their jobs better or easier. APIs are just the “language” that SaaS applications speak to access and read or modify the data. All the “as-a-Service” offerings, such as SaaS, mean that your company’s data is being held, hosted or controlled by another company.
Companies need to adopt a data-centric approach to security, realizing that data is widely distributed and taking the necessary steps to secure it. The question is no longer whether your organization has shadow integrations; it’s how quickly you can gain visibility into them.
The Next Frontier: Visibility, Control, and Continuous Vigilance
The future of SaaS and API security depends on visibility and control. Every new integration introduces both innovation and risk, and every shadow connection is a potential blind spot.
Organizations that thrive in the modern cloud era will be those that continuously inventory, monitor, and govern their integrations, treating APIs not as invisible plumbing but as critical infrastructure. By combining sound governance, user education, and modern SSPM tools, businesses can finally turn the tide against integration sprawl and regain control over their most valuable asset: data.
