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Should SaaS Companies Publish Customers Lists?


Jasper_The_Rasper
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22nd May 2017
 
A few weeks back, HR and financial management firm Workday.com sent a security advisory to customers warning that crooks were sending targeted malware phishing attacks at customers. At the same time, Workday is publishing on its site a list of more than 800 companies that use its services, making it relatively simple for attackers to chose their targets. This post examines whether it makes sense for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies to publish lists of their customers when those customers are actively under siege from phishers impersonating the SaaS provider.
 
At its most basic, security always consists of trade-offs. Many organizations find a natural tension between marketing and security. The security folks warn that publishing too much information about how the company does business and with whom makes it way too easy for phishers and other scammers to target your customers.
 
                         


                          A screenshot of a phishing lure used to target Workday customers.
 
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Now that user data/information has become such a comodity, I feel it should be secured in the same way we do our money and finances, and regulated as such. I'm just waiting for the backlash that propells common-sense privacy back in favor of individuals. As it stands consumers have no say, really. We have embarked on a new frontier and, at the moment, there is very little law and order. Unfortunately this will mean that the Internet, like most new technologies, will slowly move from an open and free system to a closed and more restrictive one.
 
BD

Baldrick
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  • May 23, 2017
It really depends on the SaaS wording/what the customer has signed themselves up for/agreed to. But to be honest a SaaS agreement is not really any difference to a more normal software agreement...it really is only a name change and usually some minor terminology/responsibility differences...so to be honest I do not really see why the hiatus?

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