Q&A: What SMBs Need To Know About Securing SaaS Applications

BIZTECH: How much do small businesses rely on SaaS applications?

SRIVASTAVA: Small businesses are now almost entirely powered by SaaS, but it’s important to recognize that the browser has become the new operating system for those applications. Small businesses now rely on an average of 36 business-critical SaaS applications — from email and accounting to generative AI tools — all running directly inside the browser. This heavy reliance has created a dangerous workspace gap. The more apps an organization has, the harder it is to secure across devices and locations. That sprawl can lead to more opportunities for mistakes: wrong link, wrong site, wrong upload or wrong permissions.

At the same time, employees are rapidly adopting AI, making it harder than ever for small businesses to tame the workspace chaos, keep their business protected and prevent unintended AI actions. While AI is vastly improving productivity, it’s also enabling more convincing phishing and creating new ways sensitive data can leak. Almost half of employees today are using AI tools at work in ways their employers have not authorized, and 46% are uploading sensitive business data to external AI tools. This security gap is particularly critical for small businesses, as they are hit with 3.5 times more AI-powered attacks than large enterprises.

With 95% of organizations reporting that security incidents originate in the browser, it is clear that standard, consumer-grade browsers weren’t built to secure a SaaS-heavy business or protect the sensitive data living within those apps.

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BIZTECH: What can SMBs do to secure SaaS applications despite having limited resources?

SRIVASTAVA: Whenever I speak with SMBs, I encourage them to start by understanding exactly where their critical data lives and how employees access their core SaaS apps, especially if they have BYOD policies. The reality is that traditional anti-virus or EDR won’t cut it anymore; work has entirely shifted to the browser on unmanaged devices, and employees are increasingly exposing sensitive data by pasting it into productivity enabling AI tools.

To secure your business with limited resources, you must secure where the work actually happens. The most critical first step is adopting a secure browser. A secure browser delivers enterprise-grade protection right at the point of attack, stopping threats such as fake logins, malware or accidental AI data leaks without requiring a dedicated IT team to manage complex software or managed services. If your “office” is an employee’s personal laptop in a coffee shop, a secure browser is the single most effective, high-impact layer of defense you can deploy before you even need to think about advanced training or expensive security providers.

Once a small business has laid that foundation, they are already a lot more secure. Then they can improve their security further with employee training and awareness, email security, identity security and XDR.

BIZTECH: How does the shared responsibility model come into play here?

SRIVASTAVA: SaaS providers do an incredible job of securing their cloud infrastructure, but under the shared responsibility model, there is a natural line where their visibility ends and the SMB’s responsibility begins. Think of it this way: The SaaS provider secures the building, but the business is responsible for who holds the keys and what happens inside.

A SaaS application simply cannot see or stop an employee who is tricked by a phishing link or accidentally downloads malware or inadvertently copy-pastes sensitive customer data into an AI tool. This is exactly where a secure browser acts as the perfect partner to your SaaS platforms. By securing the last mile right at the endpoint where the user interacts with the data, the browser works hand in hand with your SaaS providers’ built-in security. It bridges the gap, giving SMBs a simple, high-impact way to fulfill their side of the shared responsibility model by ensuring access is safe, identities are protected and sensitive data stays exactly where it belongs.

In fact, we are in conversations with many leading SaaS providers to partner with them to provide this end-to-end security to serve small business customers.

BIZTECH: What technologies do SMBs need to have in place to support SaaS security?

SRIVASTAVA: To achieve comprehensive protection, small businesses should prioritize three fundamental pillars. The first is a secure browser workspace that provides an environment to block web-based threats, such as AI-powered phishing and credential theft, before they ever reach the employee. The second pillar is AI data guardrails, which are built-in controls that allow teams to use AI for productivity while preventing unintended data leaks or unauthorized AI actions. Finally, unified visibility is critical for taming the chaos of dozens of apps. This provides a single view to manage all applications and ensures that your security policies are applied consistently across every tool and device your team uses.

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BIZTECH: What best practices would you recommend SMBs prioritize as they implement a SaaS security strategy?

SRIVASTAVA: Instead of getting bogged down in complex, enterprise-level audits, data classification projects and sprawl of multiple security tools that often overwhelm SMBs, I recommend a crawl, walk, run approach that centers entirely on the browser. Since practically all SaaS access and AI use happens on the web — often on unmanaged BYOD laptops — deploying a secure browser is the most strategic first step you can take. It acts as your central command center, instantly giving you visibility into what applications and shadow IT your team is actually using without requiring heavy endpoint management.

Once that protective browser layer is in place alongside multifactor authentication, you can confidently move to the next phases: applying least-privilege access to your core SaaS apps, mapping your critical data and seamlessly enforcing policies that block employees from accidentally pasting sensitive customer information into public AI models.

By putting the browser in the middle of your strategy, you secure the actual workspace, making the rest of your SaaS security rollout manageable and highly effective.

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BIZTECH: Is there anything we haven’t covered that is important to know about this topic

SRIVASTAVA: We are moving into a new era where AI is not just a tool you use but a teammate that performs tasks on your behalf. This is a new work environment where AI agents and automated plugins interact directly with your business applications. While this drives incredible productivity, it also creates a new kind of risk: app-to-app communication.

For a small business, the next frontier of security is no longer just about managing human users. It is about securing these automated integrations. By recognizing that the browser is the new perimeter and a centralized workspace is critical to managing it, small businesses can focus on growth and innovation while staying protected against this next generation of automated, browser-based threats.