Detecting Ransomware in SaaS
Ransomware is a known and painful problem — attackers gain access to endpoints and servers, exfiltrate and encrypt your data, while demanding payment to get it back. But when it comes to SharePoint, OneDrive, and Google Drive, how exactly does ransomware detection work? Since we deal with SaaS, there's no file detonation that takes place. But malicious files do get shared around—either by users downloading malicious payloads and resyncing them back to the corporate data storage (which is common with SaaS and on-premise), or even receiving messages from threat actors over Teams, the payload is synced back as a result.
Once arriving in SaaS, the vendor scans the files using their specific engines—both Google and Microsoft. This alleviates the need to constantly scan or monitor for malicious files as Microsoft (SharePoint & OneDrive) and Google (Google Drive) come equipped with built-in ransomware detection capabilities.
The Risk
What makes SaaS ransomware particularly dangerous? It's the perfect storm of five types of sprawl that attackers exploit:
- App Sprawl: With organizations using an average of 490 apps, attackers have countless entry points through constantly multiplying applications and their SaaS-to-SaaS connections.
- AI Sprawl: As GenAI gets infused into SaaS apps, threat actors leverage these new capabilities to create more sophisticated attacks that traditional security can't detect.
- Configuration Sprawl: Security postures become practically impossible to maintain as apps constantly update, creating configuration gaps that ransomware exploits.
- Identity Sprawl: The relentless proliferation of identities creates a maze of access privileges that attackers navigate to gain entry to your most sensitive SaaS data.
- Event Sprawl: Critical incidents like ransomware deployment hide within an avalanche of a trillion events across your SaaS ecosystem.
The most alarming aspect? Once ransomware infects one SaaS application, it can move laterally through SaaS-to-SaaS connections, compromising your entire business data ecosystem before you've even detected the initial breach. And unlike traditional ransomware that encrypts files on endpoints, SaaS ransomware targets the collaborative heart of your business - where your most critical data lives.
What this Means for Security Executives
As a CISO, SaaS ransomware should keep you up at night for several compelling reasons:
- Business Paralysis: When ransomware hits your SaaS environment, it doesn't just encrypt data—it paralyzes operations. Imagine sales teams locked out of Salesforce, marketing unable to run campaigns, or finance cut off from reporting tools right before quarter-end. The business impact is immediate and devastating.
- Data Accessibility vs. Security Tension: SaaS environments are designed for accessibility and collaboration, creating an inherent tension with security. CISOs must balance the productivity benefits of SaaS with the expanded attack surface it creates—a balancing act that ransomware exploits.
- Shadow SaaS Exposure: Shadow apps create blind spots where ransomware can lurk undetected.
- Regulatory Fallout: Beyond operational impact, SaaS ransomware triggers severe compliance consequences under GDPR, CCPA, and industry regulations. The financial penalties and legal exposure compound the direct costs of an attack.
- Recovery Complexity: Recovering from SaaS ransomware isn't as simple as restoring from backup. The interconnected nature of SaaS means that restoring one application might not address the full scope of the attack, and data synchronization issues can persist long after containment.
The stakes couldn't be higher. With SaaS now the backbone of business operations, ransomware attacks targeting these environments represent an existential business risk that demands proactive protection.
How Reco Detects Malicious Payloads
Your SaaS providers are already experts at spotting ransomware—they continuously scan for abnormal file changes, suspicious encryption patterns, and known malicious signatures.
What Reco does is smarter—we enhance these native capabilities by correlating and analyzing the alerts and behaviors flagged by Microsoft and Google.
Once found, Reco alerts regarding the specific platform in which the payloads were found—how did they originate (file sync? Teams file share?) and of course, the culprit.
How Reco Detects Ransomware
Reco's Dynamic SaaS Security approach goes far beyond traditional ransomware detection to provide comprehensive protection across your entire SaaS ecosystem:
1. Comprehensive SaaS Visibility
Before you can stop ransomware, you need to see it coming. Reco's Discovery capabilities instantly track all apps, SaaS-to-SaaS connections, and Shadow SaaS—including AI tools—giving you complete visibility into potential entry points before they're exploited.
2. Context-Rich Intelligence
Reco's Knowledge Graph transforms vast amounts of SaaS data into meaningful business context. This allows us to distinguish between legitimate user actions and potential ransomware behaviors with unmatched accuracy. Unlike other solutions that generate alerts everywhere, but when you dig deeper, about 20 alerts could have been one alert, Reco provides direct information and direct actionability.
3. Identity Threat Detection & Response
With over 400 out-of-the-box detection rules, Reco identifies ransomware indicators like:
- Suspicious mass file modifications
- Unusual access patterns across multiple SaaS platforms
- Anomalous permission changes typical of ransomware preparation
- Data exfiltration attempts before encryption
4. Business Context Prioritization
Not all ransomware alerts are created equal. Reco's AI Agents provide eureka-grade context that helps security teams prioritize threats based on business impact. This context that we provide helps to drive behavior, because you can tie: who has access, what they have access to, why this is important, and this is why you need to go fix it. And then people actually take action.
5. Automated Response
When ransomware is detected, Reco doesn't just alert—it enables automated remediation through integration with your existing security stack. According to our customers, this approach has saved an average of 7 mins per alert and enabled security teams to reduce manual work in Microsoft performing monthly audits by 40%.
6. Coverage That Evolves With Threats
Through our App Factory™—a proprietary no-code/low-code engine—we support new SaaS apps in days, not quarters. This ensures your ransomware protection extends to every SaaS application, even as attackers shift tactics.
Conclusion
The SaaS Security Gap presents a perfect storm for ransomware attackers, but with Dynamic SaaS Security from Reco, you can close that gap before it's exploited. Unlike static security measures that can't keep pace with the evolution of SaaS, Reco provides adaptive protection that evolves with your business.
Don't wait until ransomware locks down your critical SaaS applications. Take control of your SaaS security now and ensure your business remains resilient against this evolving threat landscape.
Ready to see how Reco can protect your SaaS ecosystem from ransomware? Contact us today to see Reco in action.
Dvir Sasson
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dvir is the Director of Security Research Director, where he contributes a vast array of cybersecurity expertise gained over a decade in both offensive and defensive capacities. His areas of specialization include red team operations, incident response, security operations, governance, security research, threat intelligence, and safeguarding cloud environments. With certifications in CISSP and OSCP, Dvir is passionate about problem-solving, developing automation scripts in PowerShell and Python, and delving into the mechanics of breaking things.
Dvir is the Director of Security Research Director, where he contributes a vast array of cybersecurity expertise gained over a decade in both offensive and defensive capacities. His areas of specialization include red team operations, incident response, security operations, governance, security research, threat intelligence, and safeguarding cloud environments. With certifications in CISSP and OSCP, Dvir is passionate about problem-solving, developing automation scripts in PowerShell and Python, and delving into the mechanics of breaking things.
