We face a looming SaaS data apocalypse, according to HYCU co-founder and CEO Simon Taylor, and he’s written a book about it.
SaaS data protector HYCU announced its R-Cloud scheme in February. This involves SaaS app vendors using HYCU APIs to add backup services to their apps. HYCU aims to have 100 SaaS app connectors ready within months and is targeting 500 in a few years.
Taylor’s book is like a 183-page piece of sales collateral for R-Cloud, a weighty solution brief-type document arguing that users are facing malware-caused SaaS app data losses. Since there are so many SaaS apps in use – 17,000 in the USA and 23,000 worldwide, he says – we could have critical services shut down through such attacks,.
His text argues that there is a shared responsibility model between SaaS app suppliers and their customers. The vendors look after the security of their infrastructure and the customers look after the security of their data – or should, because Taylor claims they mostly don’t.
He writes that HYCU ”research led us to a shocking discovery. Among the 23,000 SaaS vendors globally, only five of them were backed up and recoverable via the world’s leading data protection vendors. Not five percent, but five. Just five vendors.”
He asks: “What risks did this massive gap pose to organizations relying on these SaaS vendors? As we delved deeper into these issues, we began to realize the magnitude of what we were up against – a potential SaaS data apocalypse. And we knew it was imperative to shed light on this impending issue, lest we find ourselves unprepared for a disaster of an unprecedented scale.”
Taylor leads a company with big ambitions for SaaS data protection sales, which would encourage him to be energetic in his claims about the risks of not protecting SaaS data. He may be referring to an accumulation of myriad smaller SaaS app data losses rather than a single massive one, though, or both.
Taylor says: “The looming threats to SaaS data are not theoretical. They are real, palpable, and have the potential to inflict catastrophic damage.” The threats include negligent or malicious employees, human error, accounts left active after employees have quit, and malware penetrating third-party apps integrated with SaaS apps. He wants us to be scared and informed about the risks. “In the end, the value of data is incalculable. It’s the lifeblood of modern businesses, governments, and institutions. Protecting it should be one of our highest priorities. The SaaS data apocalypse is not an inevitability. It’s a potential future that we can, and should, strive to prevent. By understanding the scope of the challenge, acknowledging our shared responsibility, and taking decisive steps to protect our data, we can navigate towards a safer, more secure digital future.”
Some of the book’s flashier quotes:
- The SaaS data apocalypse is “the shadow cast by the brilliant light of technology, a specter looming ever larger with each passing day.”
- “The sheer scale of data handled by these [SaaS] services and the widespread reliance on them have painted a bulls-eye on their backs. It’s not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ a serious breach will occur, with potentially catastrophic consequences.”
- “It’s a ticking time bomb, and the clock is rapidly winding down.”
- “As the CEO of HYCU, a company deeply involved in data protection, I’m privy to the darker underbelly of our digital world. I’ve seen firsthand how the promise of technology can be subverted, turning a tool for progress into a weapon of disruption. It’s a sobering reality, but it’s one we must face head-on.”
- “Imagine a world, much like our own, where data breaches extend beyond the business realm, piercing through the very fabric of our daily lives, to impact those most defenseless – our children, our elderly, our sick, our needy. Consider the vulnerability of those for whom a SaaS data breach would carry life-altering consequences.”
- “Our defenseless, our vulnerable, those we have a duty to protect, are at risk. This is the heart-wrenching, terrifying reality we confront as we peer into the abyss of a full-blown SaaS data apocalypse.”
HYCU is ready to save us from these risks, though. There’s more of this in the book, available for $11.39 on Amazon, although HYCU may be sending it out to its customers and prospects. The message is: ”Get your SaaS app data protected.” That’s the only way, Taylor says, to avert the SaaS data apocalypse. It will also help improve HYCU’s business prospects.
