Skip to main content

Some Questions to ask an prospective SaaS provider

Communication and Operations Management
1 Network Security
IDS How are the Signatures Managed?
IPS Is this Linked to the Incident Management Systems?
2 Network Management
Encrypted Authentication Credentials How is data Managed, Do all the users share a single Database?
3 Administrative Ports - How is it managed Is Administrative Privileges restricted to Ips or ports ?
4 Network Logging What kind of logging is done
5 Virus Protection - Servers How are you protected from Virus, On a common platform do you scan all documents for Virus before upload
6 Administrative Activity Logging Is all Admin Activity Logged? What are the parameters Logged
7 Log-on Activity Logging Is the Logging of individuals maintained including time sheet users?
8 Log Retention How long are the logs retained
9 Web Site Privacy Policy What about Privacy Policy. What is the due care policy specific to a individual client
10 Web Site Client Encryption What kind of Client Encryption utilized and How do you identify the admins? Is there a certificate issued for admins?
11 Email Relaying Is mail relay done for third party domains?
12 Physical Media Tracking What is the policy with regard to backups and storage of information?
13 Security of Media in Transit Where are the backups stored how? What are the access policies for these backup media
14 Network Security - Authorized network Traffic What kind of traffic is authorized on the servers hosting the application as well as the back end
15 Network Security Firewalling - What kind of firewalling is used and How are they managed
16 Change Control Is there a formal change control policy, How are these communicated to the clients?

ACCESS CONTROLS
17 Password Controls What are the password controls for admins and clients
18 Revoke System Access How is system access revoked, how is it reinstated?
19 Logical Access Authorization How many roles are defined and how are they managed
20 Inactive Accounts How are inactive accounts addressed
21 Physical Access Authorization Who authorizes physical access to the servers?
22 Multi-factor Authentication for Remote Access If remote admin is done, is two factor authentication used

23 INCIDENT MANAGEMENT What is the Incident Management process in vogue?
How soon do you respond to an incident and notify client of any incident and what severity of incident would get escalated?
24 BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT What about Business Continuity in the event of disaster
Are the clients part of your BCP plan? How would we be notified?
25 COMPLIANCE Is there a requirement to be compliant any federal mandates, if yes which are the ones

AVAILABILITY
26 Uptime Availability What is the uptime availability of the Servers?
27 What is the SLA for the Web Application?
28 What is the Mean Time to Respond for Incidents
29 What is the Mean time to Repair for Incidents
30 What Ticketing System is used for support
31 What are the penalities for breaching the SLA
DATA PROTECTION
32 Is the Database common for all clients?
33 How is the data protected between different Clients
34 If I end my contract what is that I have to do to get my data
OTHERS
35 Is your application Integrate with other applications , What are they?
36 How often do you update your product. Is there a regular release cycle?
37 Do the clients have options to run multiple versions of the Application? Or is it only one version?
DATA CENTER
38 Where is the Servers Hosted?
39 Is the Service Levels that is received from your vendors higher than the SLA promised to clients?
40 Is your application servers clustered? Georgraphically ?
41 Do you have a secondary provider as a fall back in the case of the primary vendor having a disaster?
42 Are you insured for service failure?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where are we headed ... A crystal ball into Cybersecurity in the next five years .. Are we ready?

  The future of Cyber Security: Trends and Predictions for the Next 5 years The field of cybersecurity is constantly evolving, and the threats are only getting more sophisticated. In the next five years, we can expect to see a number of trends emerge in the field of cybersecurity, including: The rise of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is already being used by cybercriminals to develop more sophisticated and targeted attacks. As AI continues to develop, it is likely that cybercriminals will be able to use it to even greater effect. The increasing use of cloud computing. Cloud computing has many benefits, but it also introduces new security challenges. Cloud-based data is often more vulnerable to attack than data that is stored on-premises. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is connecting billions of devices to the internet, which creates a vast new attack surface for cybercriminals. IoT devices are often poorly secured, making them easy targets for attack. The shor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Red Team Blue Team Exercises - A Roadmap to follow to test the efficacy of controls

  Scenario 1: Phishing Attack Red Team Playbook Day 1: Send out phishing emails to the blue team. Monitor the blue team's response. Day 2: Analyze the blue team's response and identify any vulnerabilities. Report the findings to the blue team. Blue Team Playbook Day 1: Train employees on how to identify and avoid phishing emails. Monitor for phishing emails. Day 2: Analyze the phishing emails sent by the red team. Identify any vulnerabilities in the organization's phishing detection and response processes. Develop a plan to improve the organization's phishing detection and response processes. Analysis The red team's phishing attack was successful in getting several employees to click on the phishing links. This shows that the organization needs to improve its employee training on phishing awareness. The blue team was able to identify and contain the phishing attack, but it took them several hours to do so. This shows that the organization needs to improve its phishi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shifting Landscape of Knowledge and the Nobel Prize

Our recent conversation sparked some interesting thoughts about the prestigious Nobel Prize and the distribution of its recipients across the globe. Inspired by a user's search history, we delved into the fascinating patterns and potential implications of who gets recognized for groundbreaking achievements. The initial point of discussion centered on the user's search activity, which revealed an interest in various scientific and technological topics, as well as a specific search for "Nobel Prize winners by country." This led us to explore the geographical distribution of Nobel laureates, and a question arose: why does it seem that certain schools and countries, particularly in the West, have a higher representation? We considered several factors that might contribute to this observation: Historical Dominance in Science: Historically, Western nations have often been at the forefront of scientific research due to earlier investments and established infrastructure. V...
Post a Comment
Read more