Notifications
Clear all
Topic starter
15/08/2026 6:07 pm
TL;DR: SSPM was built to find SaaS misconfigurations, but Grip Security says modern risk increasingly sits in identities, permissions, OAuth links, AI agents, and non-human identities instead. That makes identity visibility, not posture alone, the decisive control for SaaS governance.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Grip Security: Why SSPM Misses Identity Risks in SaaS
By the numbers:
- AI-related attacks increased nearly 490% year over year, according to Grip Security's 2026 SaaS + AI Security Report.
- Only 5.7% of organisations have full visibility into their service accounts.
- 97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges, increasing unauthorised access and broadening the attack surface.
Questions worth separating out
Q: What breaks when SSPM is used as the only control for SaaS security?
A: SSPM breaks down when the main risk is not a misconfiguration but an identity with too much access.
Q: When does OAuth create more risk than it reduces in SaaS environments?
A: OAuth becomes high risk when scopes are broad, tokens are long-lived, and the organization cannot see how the credential is reused across connected apps.
Q: What do organisations get wrong about embedded AI agents in SaaS tools?
A: They often treat embedded agents as a feature setting instead of a new access surface.
Practitioner guidance
- Build an identity inventory across SaaS apps Map human users, service accounts, OAuth-connected applications, API keys, and AI-enabled workflows into one governance view so posture findings can be tied to real access paths.
- Review OAuth scopes and delegation ownership Validate who approved each grant, what permissions were consented to, whether the access is still required, and how quickly it can be revoked when business need changes.
- Apply privileged access controls to non-human identities Treat service accounts and AI agents as governed identities with owner assignment, least privilege, periodic review, and revocation workflows rather than as unmanaged technical objects.
What's in the full article
Grip Security's full webinar covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- The practical breakdown of how SSPM misses identity-driven SaaS exposure across OAuth, service accounts, and AI-connected workflows.
- The webinar's identity-centric control model for separating application posture from effective access in SaaS environments.
- Examples of where delegated permissions persist after the original business use case has ended.
- The operational framing for moving from configuration checks to continuous identity governance across SaaS applications.
👉 Watch Grip Security's webinar on why SSPM misses identity risks in SaaS →
SSPM and SaaS identity risk: are your controls keeping up?
Explore further
15/08/2026 6:16 pm
Identity-centric SaaS security is now the baseline because posture management alone cannot describe effective access. SSPM still has value for misconfiguration detection, but that is only one layer of the problem. The modern SaaS attack surface is defined by entitlements, delegated permissions, and non-human identities that sit behind otherwise compliant settings. Practitioners should treat access visibility as the primary control plane, with posture as supporting evidence.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 85% of organisations lack full visibility into third-party vendors connected via OAuth apps, according to The State of Non-Human Identity Security.
- Only 5.7% of organisations have full visibility into their service accounts, according to the Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should security teams govern shared IT service accounts in SaaS environments?
A: Treat shared service accounts as high-risk NHIs with explicit ownership, rotation, and revocation rules. Require individual operator identities for access, preserve traceable activity records, and retire shared accounts where a per-user or delegated admin model is possible. The key is to manage the credential as a governed identity, not a convenience login.
👉 Read our full editorial: SSPM misses identity risk because SaaS exposure is now access-driven
