Rethinking TPRM: Are You Really Managing Third-Party SaaS Risk?

You think you've nailed your third-party risk management (TPRM) strategy. You've assessed your vendors, reviewed their security postures, and your risk dashboard is looking pretty green. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: that third-party risk score might be hiding the real dangers lurking in your environment. What if your biggest vulnerability isn’t the vendor you’ve thoroughly vetted but the SaaS tool this vendor produces and your employees are actively using? Or worse yet, what about the shadow SaaS your employees independently adopted that doesn’t even appear on your risk management radar?

SaaS applications have exploded in use, making it easy for anyone in your organization to sign up for or trial a new tool—sometimes without anyone in security even knowing. These tools promise to boost productivity and streamline workflows, but the lack of visibility into how they’re being used means your organization is flying blind in a storm of hidden risks. Who’s using these apps? What sensitive data are they touching or storing? Are they even being accessed securely?

As well-intentioned as your TPRM evaluations are, traditional vendor risk assessments don’t even scratch the surface of these issues. They’re designed to tell you if a vendor’s security controls are solid, not how that vendor’s SaaS product interacts with your environment. It’s like judging a car by its shiny paint job without looking under the hood to see if the engine is leaking oil.

That’s the gap in today’s third-party risk management practices, and it’s growing wider by the day. We call it “SaaS Risk Creep”—vulnerabilities that increase over time from increased SaaS adoption and overlooked or unmanaged SaaS risks. The good news is that Grip and SecurityScorecard have joined forces to expose these hidden threats, adding a layer of critical insight that TPRM programs alone can’t offer.

The Glaring Holes in your TPRM Strategy

TPRM tools have long been used to vet vendors and assess cyber risks. Companies like SecurityScorecard excel at rating third-party vendors, offering insights into their overall security posture. But there's an inherent challenge when assessing SaaS vendors—particularly as SaaS ecosystems grow more complex. Third-party risk management, as it's traditionally applied, addresses only the known risks: the vendors you’ve already onboarded (or are about to onboard) and whose controls you’ve reviewed. But what about the SaaS you don’t know about?

Shadow SaaS is the Achilles’ heel of your security strategy. When employees procure SaaS applications without IT or security knowledge, the organization’s risk surface silently expands. Shadow SaaS slips through the cracks because it doesn’t go through traditional procurement channels or any sort of security review—security teams aren't even aware of what employees are independently using. Yet, these apps can still handle sensitive data, connect to critical systems, and bypass identity controls.

It’s not just the existence of these shadow SaaS applications that introduces risk—it’s also how they’re used. A third-party vendor assessment might flag a SaaS provider as “low risk” based on their security posture and controls, but if employees are accessing this tool without proper identity management (e.g., using weak passwords or lacking multi-factor authentication), the actual risk to the organization becomes far more nuanced. These are the blind spots that turn into serious vulnerabilities and quietly break compliance rules, but the fact of the matter is that traditional TPRM frameworks weren't built to handle them.

Grip and SecurityScorecard: Shining a Light on SaaS Identity Risks

The integration between Grip and SecurityScorecard addresses this fundamental problem. Grip’s ability to discover and monitor every SaaS application in use—including the shadow apps your employees have introduced—gives you visibility where you previously had none. Grip digs into the identity risks that matter: who’s accessing the app, how they’re logging in, and whether they’re using secure methods like SSO or MFA.

Think about it: A SaaS tool might pass your TPRM review, but if Grip finds that 70% of your users are accessing it using weak passwords and no MFA, the actual risk is much higher than your initial assessment suggested. That’s the kind of insight you can’t afford to ignore.

By integrating this information into SecurityScorecard’s vendor risk management platform, you’re no longer just monitoring a vendor’s security controls—you understand how their SaaS product interacts with your organization in real time. It’s not just about whether the vendor is secure; it’s about how securely your people use their app.

Moving From Monitoring to Mitigation

Knowing what’s going wrong is not enough; you must also fix it. That’s why this integration doesn’t just illuminate the problem; it gives you the tools to solve it. Bring risky SaaS applications or newly discovered shadow SaaS under management in SecurityScorecard for ongoing monitoring and control. Grip allows security teams to take action, whether that’s enabling MFA on risky apps or cutting off access to unsanctioned tools entirely.

The ability to neutralize real-time risks sets the integration of these two tools apart. It’s not just about generating a list of potential issues—it’s about preventing them from becoming incidents in the first place. Think of it as moving from passive monitoring to active SaaS identity risk mitigation, closing the gap between knowing your risks and addressing them.

Why Your SaaS Risk Strategy Needs an Overhaul

The reality is SaaS ecosystems are evolving faster than most TPRM frameworks can keep up with. The rise of AI-driven SaaS applications will only accelerate this trend, and relying on legacy risk management processes leaves your organization exposed.

Consider this scenario: Your company uses a popular SaaS tool to manage customer data. The vendor has a glowing third-party risk rating, but Grip uncovers that a third of your workforce is accessing the tool with no MFA in place. And, if you’re in a regulated industry, like healthcare, retail, or financial services, you’ve also got potential compliance violations to deal with, as HIPAA, PCI DSS 4.0, NYDFS, and the Updated Safeguards Rule require MFA for anyone accessing sensitive customer information on your system. Suddenly, your trusted SaaS vendor is a significant risk factor—because of how your organization uses it, not because of the vendor’s security controls.

It’s clear that a more comprehensive approach to SaaS risk is needed, one that accounts for how apps are being used in your environment, not just whether the vendor is following best security practices. This is where the Grip-SecurityScorecard integration shines, bridging the gap between vendor risk and real-world SaaS usage.

Don’t Settle for a False Sense of Security

A clean vendor risk score is only part of the puzzle in today's complex SaaS landscape. Without visibility into how those SaaS tools are being used within your environment, you’re operating with blind spots that could turn into full-blown incidents.

The partnership between Grip and SecurityScorecard takes third-party risk management (TPRM) to the next level, giving you insight into vendor security and how those vendors’ SaaS products are being deployed in your organization. The result? A true understanding of your SaaS risk landscape—and the ability to do something about it. In short, it’s time to stop assuming you’re covered and start knowing you are.

Jumpstart your success: Grip and SecurityScorecard offer a free SaaS identity risk assessment to uncover the gaps in your security controls. Identify which SaaS applications should be prioritized for SSO and MFA. Know who is using shadow SaaS and which apps they are. The assessment is free; book yours now.

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