Building and managing applications from scratch is complex, which is where platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions come in. PaaS companies offer ready-made platforms to create, manage, and run applications — allowing businesses to save time, reduce costs, and scale their applications quickly without the traditional headaches of app development.
As with any technology, however, PaaS can come with its own security and operational risks that organizations must address.
In this article, we’ll break down some of the most common PaaS security risks and reveal some of the top strategies for mitigating them.
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5 common PaaS threats
The PaaS industry has seen a lot of growth in the past few years. According to IBM, the global PaaS industry was estimated to be worth $176 billion in 2024. While PaaS may not seem inherently risky, the industry does face some major threats.
Data breaches and security vulnerabilities
One of the most critical risks involved in PaaS is cybersecurity. Since PaaS providers manage an application’s underlying infrastructure, attackers can exploit any security weakness in the system, third-party integrations, or applications built on the platform.
Here are some common PaaS security risks:
- Insecure interfaces and APIs: An unsecured application programming interface (API) can expose sensitive data and provide entry points to attackers that allow them to manipulate applications.
- Vulnerable code: Unpatched or poorly written application code can be exploited by attackers to gain unauthorized access.
- Misconfigurations: Mistakes in the setup of security settings, such as overly permissive access controls, can create vulnerabilities in critical systems that attackers can then exploit.
- Poisoned pipeline execution: Attackers can inject malicious code into CI/CD pipelines, leading to security breaches and unauthorized access.
- Data retention: Poor data storage policies may expose your data to cybercriminals, which can lead to a costly data breach.
Regulatory compliance risks
Keeping up with regulatory compliance in PaaS is a challenge because the rules are always changing. Regulations on data retention, privacy, cross-border data transfers, and security standards are constantly shifting, so even if you are doing everything right, the expectations can quickly change.
Regulatory fines are a significant PaaS risk. If a company fails to meet compliance standards, they risk hefty penalties, litigation, and loss of customer trust. Here are some of the most important PaaS regulations to follow:
- HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulates health care data in the U.S. If your PaaS platform handles such information in the U.S., you must ensure strict patient data protection to comply with HIPAA. Violations can lead to severe penalties and lawsuits.
- CCPA: California is one of the few U.S. states that have specified data security regulations. If you have customers in California, you must follow the California Consumer Privacy Act, which gives residents control over their personal data.
- PCI-DSS: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a global regulation. If your PaaS platform processes or stores credit card data, you must meet PCI-DSS standards to protect customers.
- SOC 2: While not a legal requirement, many businesses prefer to work with PaaS providers with a “System and Organization Controls 2” certification. SOC 2 certifies that your company securely handles data.
- ISO 27001: Although not a regulation per se, ISO 27001 is a leading international standard for managing information security, often used by cloud service providers to demonstrate their commitment to data security.
- GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation is the EU’s data regulator. Any company that stores or processes data from EU customers must comply with GDPR’s strict data privacy rules. Failure to comply with GDPR guidelines can result in fines of up to 20 million euros.
Operational risks
Since PaaS companies provide businesses with a ready-made platform for developing and managing applications, any disruption to their service can have widespread consequences. Developers and tech teams rely heavily on the services that PaaS companies offer, so an outage or other operational errors can seriously damage both the PaaS customer and the provider.
Here are a couple of examples of PaaS operational risks:
- Scalability issues: The platform may be unable to handle sudden spikes in traffic, leading to a slow, underperforming website.
- Server outages and downtime: Unexpected system failures, cloud provider outages, or server crashes could disrupt application availability.
Integration issues
Think of PaaS as your smartphone and integrations as the apps you install to extend its capabilities. PaaS provides an environment for building applications, while integrations allow users to add specialized tools, like payment processing or analytics, to enhance performance.
However, third-party integrations can pose a significant threat. When an integration experiences an issue, it can disrupt platform operations. So, while these tools are meant to improve efficiency and PaaS workflows, they also introduce vulnerabilities.
Reputational risks
A PaaS company’s reputation is one of its most valuable assets. Data breaches, system downtime, and compliance violations can cause serious harm to a company’s reputation. Reputational damage like this can be difficult to come back from — after all, services like cloud hosting and application development are built on trust. And trust can quickly erode when PaaS companies experience major issues like those we have listed above.
One important thing to consider when constructing a risk management plan is that PaaS security responsibilities are shared between the provider and the customer. Therefore, it is important to understand which risks you are responsible for mitigating.
PaaS provider responsibilities
- Protect the platform’s infrastructure, including servers, networks, and operating systems.
- Ensure the platform is functioning reliably — that is, check uptime, monitor performance, and prevent outages, etc.
- Apply security patches to meet industry standards and compliance regulations.
Consumer responsibilities
- Consistently update and keep applications free of vulnerabilities.
- Protect sensitive data and follow compliance regulations.
- Restrict and limit user access based on the user’s role.
How to effectively assess PaaS security risks
Before you can manage your PaaS risks effectively, you must first determine which of them poses the greatest threat to your business.
One of the easiest ways to get started is by using a Risk Profile — this free tool can help PaaS companies proactively assess risks and refine their security strategies before issues escalate. It can also help you prioritize which threats to handle based on their impact and likelihood.
After all, not all risks are equal. Some may cause minor service disruptions, while others can lead to severe financial losses, security breaches, or reputational damage. This is why having a structured risk assessment plan is important.
There are two main ways that PaaS providers can assess and prioritize risks.
Quantitative risk analysis
Quantitative risk assessment uses statistics and real (quantifiable) data to measure risks. Instead of making predictions, it analyzes past financial data and losses to estimate potential impacts. Quantitative risk analysis also helps predict the likelihood of future risks based on measurable patterns and trends.
This helps companies figure out how significant a threat really is. It relies on past incidents, statistics, and real-world data to clearly understand what could go wrong and how much it might cost.
Here are some examples of how PaaS companies can use quantitative risk analysis:
- Estimating revenue loss from downtime by looking at past outages and how many customers were affected.
- Calculating the cost of a data breach, including fines, legal costs, and lost customers.
- Measuring the impact of compliance violations, using accurate data to calculate potential fines, legal costs, and reputational damage from failing to meet regulations.
Qualitative risk analysis
While quantitative risk assessment is the ideal way to analyze risks, it isn’t always an option. When hard data isn’t available, you can use qualitative risk analysis to analyze your PaaS risks. Qualitative risk analysis focuses on identifying, ranking, and prioritizing risks based on their potential impact and likelihood rather than assigning exact quantitative values.
While this method is not as accurate as quantitative assessment, it is still a great way for PaaS companies to quickly identify high-risk areas and allocate resources accordingly.
For example, if a PaaS provider launches a new service that doesn’t have historical data, they can use qualitative risk analysis to pinpoint potential security, compliance, and operational risks based on industry trends and advice from industry professionals.
Best practices for PaaS risk management
Develop a business continuity and incident response plan
Having a strong incident response plan is crucial in today’s world, for most kinds of businesses, An incident response plan essentially provides PaaS companies with a blueprint for responding to threats. This ensures that when something goes wrong — such as a major security breach or a systems failure — your company is equipped to respond quickly and effectively to minimize the damages.
The longer it takes a PaaS company to respond to an incident and restore its core functions, the worse the financial and reputational damage will be. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of business continuity and effective incident response, especially in an industry as important as PaaS.
Strengthen PaaS security controls
Cybersecurity is a major concern for PaaS providers, as any data breach or cyberattack can compromise both their platform and their customers’ applications. Cyber threats have been on the rise in recent years, and several PaaS providers have been targeted. For example, in 2021, Accenture, a cloud-based PaaS provider, experienced a major ransomware attack by a cybercriminal organization that demanded $50 million.
Here are some cyber hygiene and best practices to follow to strengthen cybersecurity.
- Data encryption: Your best bet is to encrypt data both at rest and in transit. This means that even if information is intercepted or accessed by an unauthorized party, it remains unreadable without the proper decryption keys.
- MFA: You can significantly reduce your risk of unauthorized access by forcing employees and contractors to verify their identity using multifactor authentication (such as a code sent to their phone).
- Password managers: Password managers help users create and store strong, unique passwords. This reduces the risk of weak or reused passwords, which are easily exploited by cybercriminals.
- DDoS protection and network security: DDoS attacks flood your servers with excessive traffic to slow them down or crash your platform. Firewalls and intrusion detection systems can help filter out malicious traffic before it overwhelms your servers.
Invest in proactive risk management tools and technology
New PaaS security risks are emerging all the time, so even with a solid risk management plan, you’ll need to continuously update and adapt it to stay ahead. Luckily, risk management technology has been keeping pace — and the biggest advancement has been the transition from reactive risk management to proactive approaches. In other words, instead of tackling threats as they occur, new risk management technology allows us to prepare for incidents beforehand.
Here are some of the best tools to invest in to improve your PaaS risk assessment:
Transfer risks to an insurance provider
While there are ways to prevent incidents and avoid risk, it’s always wise to have a backup plan. After all, no PaaS risk management plan is completely foolproof. In some cases, no matter how many preventative measures you have in place to protect your company, some risks will penetrate.
That’s where insurance can come in. Here’s how the right insurance coverage can safeguard your business when preventative measures fall short.
- Cyber liability insurance: Protects PaaS providers from financial and reputational damage caused by data breaches and cyberattacks. It covers expenses such as legal fees, regulatory fines, and the cost of notifying customers after a security incident.
- Business interruption insurance: Covers losses that occur due to unexpected downtime from server failures, cyberattacks, or natural disasters. This insurance policy compensates for lost revenue and covers ongoing operational costs while services are restored.
- Technology errors and omissions insurance (Tech E&O): This policy covers claims arising from technical failures, misconfigurations, or service disruptions that cause financial losses for customers. If a bug or security flaw results in legal action by a customer, Tech E&O will cover legal expenses and settlements.
- Directors and officers insurance (D&O): This policy specifically covers the core leadership of a company. D&O insurance protects the assets of executives who face litigation or financial penalties for actions that occurred while performing their professional duties.
Take control of your PaaS risks
PaaS operates in a rapidly evolving environment where even the smallest risks can have major consequences. A strong risk assessment strategy is the best path forward to protect customer data, prevent disruptions, and keep your platform stable and reliable.
While PaaS security risks are always evolving, staying ahead of them can give you the advantage. Embroker’s Risk Profile tool helps you identify vulnerabilities, assess threats, and build an effective risk management plan that protects your business. Don’t wait for an issue to take you off course — be proactive with your risk management and protect your business.
